


Of voices that aren't known

by Thesilentone



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Medical Torture, Multi, Non-Explicit Sex, Non-Graphic Violence, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-16 06:52:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 32,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5818378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thesilentone/pseuds/Thesilentone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She whispers to me....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, i'm back again!!!  
> I'm having fun with this so I'm back. A quick look ahead as to what you can expect here. 
> 
> I'm sticking to cloud being a commander in this,so that is staying, as the same for my other stories, 'safe' and 'burn', cloud's gear and uniform as well as his weapons (dual swords) are in this as well. As is major garren from the previous stories too.  
> Now, I know what you are thinking,  
> "oh God, she's going to make cloud suffer again..."  
> Well i am, but he's not the main victim in this. He'll be put through hell, obviously, i love doing so, but it won't be like before. I promise you.  
> I, like before, will post up this first chapter and see how it is received by you all.  
> Same rules apply, this will have an ending and it will be finished regardless.  
> I know that the first chapter is short but hopefully, it'll be well received here.  
> Anyways, enough of that, please enjoy and comments as usual are appreciated and encouraged!!!  
> Thanks again, oh and even if you haven't read the aforementioned stories? Don't worry about it, they are not linked to this in any way, it'll be explained to you who haven't read them to what cloud wears etc.  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 1

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.  
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

He loved the weekend.  
A chance to catch up with his lover's, catch up on the shows he had missed and on sleep. 

But most of all, sephiroth loved waking up to cloud sleeping beside him. 

Cloud was a commander, like angeal and genesis are, but of the army instead. And as such, cloud's workload was equal, if not, the same as his own. Cloud was in essence a stranger to the other four, in rare occasions, the five had managed to get cloud's company for the evening or so, but it happens a lot less now. 

And that's what sephiroth loves more now, the other's are enhanced, they can take a beating or four and bounce back. But Cloud? He was all natural and having him sleep with men that could easily kill him in their sleep, truly made sephiroth appreciate him even more. 

Cloud trusted them implicitly. He knew the risks of sleeping with SOLDIERS, both theoretically and literally , but he trusted them. He wasn't with them for the fame, power or status - hell, everyone knows that they are all involved with the other and they respected that, especially since cloud had his own respective position that he could never be accused of nepotism of any kind. 

But lately, sephiroth has been getting headaches. Usually they come and go, but now, they mostly come when only he's with cloud. And in close proximity of him, the pain intensifies. 

Sephiroth was worried about it, he probably was overworked and just assumed that they were a product of missing and worrying about cloud. But now? Now when he has a slightly bruised cloud in his arms, safe and sound, he didn't know what to think. 

That is, until he heard a soft, female voice in his head asking the unaskable of him. 

'Kill the nibelheim child’.

He knew he couldn't, knew he wouldn't, but when sleepy, blue eyes focused on him and a small smile was on a still very much tired face came too…. 

All sephiroth could do was wrap a strong hand around his neck. 

And squeezed…. Hard….. 

 

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His eyes finally opened...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> Thanks so much for the attention that the first chapter had garnered, it's incredibly humbling!!!  
> I'm in the process of writing the next chapter now, these may be on the short side, but i have condensed as much story telling in the chapters without unnecessarily dragging it down.   
> Thanks again and enjoy!!!  
> Feel free to comment on this if you like too.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 2

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

Cloud didn't know what to think of this.   
Everything was fine when he got home from his mission. Sephiroth had been waiting for his return to shinra HQ and when he was in a hand's width away? Sephiroth all but pulled him into a warm hug and dragged him to his apartment, all the while murmuring into his ear that he looked too tired to even care for himself and that he'll look after cloud instead. 

A statement that cloud had no qualms with agreeing with. 

And now…..

Now sephiroth was calmly strangling the life out of him. 

He didn't know what to do, sephiroth was strong in every sense of the word. But there was a look in his eyes, a look that said that the lights were on but nobody's home. Using that as determination, cloud weakly grasped onto the wrist around his throat and struggled to speak. 

“Seph….. Sephiroth….. It's me…. It's….. Cloud…. Please…. Let….go..”

He was clawing at the hand, scratching and digging his nails into sephiroth's arms but it wasn't working and soon, black spots were entering cloud's vision… really, cloud NEVER stood a chance against the might that is sephiroth… 

“Sephiroth!!! Hey, did you get cloud?”

Cloud was losing consciousness, but he just about heard zack. If he could just hold on… just keep consciousness …. Just for a little bit longer….. He had to let zack know…

“Help… me…. Please?….”

 

Zack was being ignored, and zack didn't like that one bit. 

“Ok. I'm going in. Sephiroth should've answered me.”

“Puppy? Let him rest. If he has cloud, he'll most likely want him to sleep.”

Zack really couldn't argue with angeal or his logic, and he was about to agree when he heard a noise. 

A noise of his youngest lover and best friend begging. 

'That isn't right’. With that thought in mind zack ignored angeal's protest of staying put and let cloud sleep and entered sephiroth's room, and what he saw scared him… 

Sephiroth was above cloud, which wasn't really surprising. What was however, was the hand around cloud's throat and the red staining his face. A face that was clearly afraid of what's going on. A face that was losing it's light of life… 

Immediately, zack charged at sephiroth and bellowed for angeal. 

“ANGEAL!!”

Hearing that, angeal entered and immediately jumped straight in.   
They barely managed to remove one of sephiroth's fingers from cloud's throat when sephiroth turned to them, sneered and then flung cloud into the opposite wall. 

With a loud bang, cloud slid down the wall, leaving behind a trail of blood from his now cracked skull. 

“CLOUD!!!”

Immediately, zack gently cupped cloud's head, cradling the boy's neck and began to heal the head trauma first before he dealt with his throat. A crushed larynx can be fixed, but it'll do no good if the subject was unconscious. 

Angeal meanwhile, had sephiroth pinned to the bed and with one of cloud's hunter knifes to his throat and spoke. 

“Sephiroth. What happened? Why did you hurt cloud?”

Angeal was angry, but he was concerned more, genesis and in particular sephiroth, were immensely fond of cloud, they all were. So to do something like this? There had to be a reason, regardless of the situation. There was always an explanation for everything sephiroth does. 

Slowly, sephiroth's eyes seemed to gain realisation and immediately he knew what he had done. Fearing the worse, sephiroth ignored the knife rightly deserved at his neck and spoke. 

“Angeal? Is cloud..?”

Sighing in relief, angeal sat back slowly, removed the blade from flesh and spoke. Knowing that sephiroth deserved the truth, and the bluntness of it was what was needed. 

“I don't know. Zack is healing him now. You most likely have crushed his larynx, not to mention that you have cracked his head open when you threw him. Sephiroth? What happened?”

Sephiroth merely turned to see what he had done. There was a crack in the plastering to his wall - but that wasn't the main concern. There was a thick streak of blood down his wall and in a heap on the floor was the owner of said blood stain. 

Cloud was leaning against the wall with zack's hands gently holding his neck up whist he healed him.   
Zack had heard what angeal had asked and spoke softly, tears evidently in his voice. 

“Seph? Why would you harm cloud? He's the only one of us that can't handle our strength. So why?”

Getting up on shaky legs, sephiroth with the help of angeal stood far behind zack and spoke. 

“I never intended to do so. You all know that. I can't explain why, i just heard a voice. I sound mad, but that is the truth. I would never put cloud in danger of any kind.”

Zack knew that, knew that like him, genesis and angeal, sephiroth would never lay a finger on cloud in that manner.   
Cloud was beginning to return and immediately zack gently pulled cloud into his arms and murmured to his temple. 

“Cloud. How are you feeling? Are you alright?”

All cloud could do was nod in agreement before he saw sephiroth.   
Angeal had seen that too and was about to polity ask sephiroth to come with him when cloud whispered through a raspy voice. 

“Seph? Are you...Are you alright now?”

Amazing. Cloud was strangled and thrown with such force that it cracked his skull open and he was worried about the man who did it. 

Reluctantly, sephiroth approached and zack allowed cloud to go to him, with a watchful eye on him, of course. 

Immediately cloud began to sob and he all but flew into sephiroth's arms. Sephiroth meanwhile, dared not to touch him, not after what he had done, but cloud's words made him think twice. 

“Please don't. Don't hate me or what i am so much that you can't even stand me. Please? Please still love me.”

And immediately, sephiroth wrapped his arms around his body and pulled him into a warm hug. Murmuring against his temple, sephiroth could only apologise over and over again. 

“I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry cloud. I never meant for that to happen. Please believe me.”

But before cloud could respond, he lurched backwards and zack immediately knew why. 

“Ok cloud. Hold it in, angeal? Grab a bucket quick.”

Sure enough, angeal was already doing just that. And immediately, cloud threw up with a worried zack gently holding him and rubbing soothing circles to his back and between his shoulderblades.Whist cloud was alive - just, and sephiroth was back to normal, the real problem was yet to be addressed. 

Firstly, what ‘voice’ did sephiroth hear?  
Secondly, why did it happen, and only to cloud?  
And thirdly, will it happen again?

None of those questions could be answered right now, but they knew that everything has changed. 

For now, they'll keep an eye on sephiroth. 

For now, everything is just about normal. 

Now then, how will they break this to genesis?

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you give someone an ultimatum - it means that the person has reached their limits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!  
> Thank-you so, so much for your comments and kudos for the story thus far, it's amazing and truly humbling.   
> I'm going to post up two chapters today and will update again tomorrow.   
> Thanks again and feel free to comment on this if you like to.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 3

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING?!?!?!”

Genesis wasn't happy.   
Not in the slightest bit. 

He had come by at his usual time, maybe a few minutes later to allow cloud time to relax before his arrival. And what did genesis see and smell when he arrived?

A crack in sephiroth's room, the smell of freshly drawn blood and a pale cloud in zack's protective arms. 

Angeal was holding on to a clearly distressed sephiroth and genesis shouting was not helping anything. 

“Genesis. Please stop yelling. I saw the look in sephiroth's eyes, he wasn't aware of his actions. If anything, believe me when i say that sephiroth didn't even notice us until we touched him. I understand your anger and worry but shouting isn't helping, especially cloud and sephiroth. So please genesis? Enough.”

He knew that angeal had made a valid point, but still.. Cloud was fragile, not like fine china, god no. The boy can pack a punch, and then some. But cloud stood little to no chance against SOLDIER, and that's not even mentioning sephiroth. 

Cloud can fight, there's no doubt about it. He may be able to hold his ground a little bit against these four, he's certainly trained with them. But they held back a little bit, never fully tapping into their respective strengths, but sephiroth was in an entirely different league. 

Sephiroth, for all tense of purposes, was a god among SOLDIER, he didn't need to tap into his enhancements because he was already strong enough as it is. And that was what frightened genesis the most. 

When they indulged in sex with cloud, they were always careful, they NEVER pitied cloud but they made sure to hold back. They always left behind bruises though, no matter how hard they tried not to and cloud always, ALWAYS said that he believed them. 

Sephiroth hadn't even used his full strength and just that caused serious injury to cloud. 

So then - what would happen if sephiroth did? Simple, cloud would be dead. 

End of discussion. 

“Gen?...”

He was so caught up in his he that he barely heard cloud's subdued voice.   
Sitting down in front of the pair, genesis gave him a warm smile, caressed cloud's hair away from his face and softly spoke. 

“My sweetheart. I apologise for the yelling. How are you?”

“I'm ok. Is… Is sephiroth fine though? Angeal was right, sephiroth had no recognition in his eyes when he saw me. Please don't be angry with Seph. Please?”

Sighing heavily but in understanding, genesis turned and looked at a surprisingly tired looking sephiroth. 

Groaning, genesis stood up, sat down beside him and rubbed his back in a soothing motion before he spoke. 

“I'm not happy about this…”

“I know.”

“Are you alright?”

“No. I could've killed cloud. Almost did.”

“You are correct about that..”

“Genesis….”

Ignoring angeal's warning, genesis gave sephiroth a lingering kiss to his temple before he spoke again. 

“It's alright. Cloud's fine. He's worried about you though. That's his nature.”

“Indeed it is.”

Smiling softly, genesis stood up abruptly and spoke to all those present. 

“We, my fine SOLDIERS have work to do?”

Scoffing in a light manner, zack gently pulled cloud into his arms more and stood up. Once cloud was steady on his feet, zack sat him down beside sephiroth, who merely watched on as cloud immediately fell against his side. Cloud wasn't afraid of him, he was completely trusting him and that scared sephiroth. 

Angeal, having seen this, smiled softly and spoke. 

“Sephiroth? Hold him.”

Looking up at angeal in stress, sephiroth carefully wrapped an arm around cloud's shoulders and kissed his head, which caused cloud to sob a little and hold sephiroth tighter. 

“I. I can still stay with you all. Right?”  
Frowning, angeal turned cloud's face, cupped his cheeks and spoke. 

“Of Course cloud. You belong here with us. We'll deal with this, don't worry. You're staying with us.”

Smiling softly in gratitude, cloud turned to sephiroth's face and softly kissed his cheek.   
Smiling, despite himself, sephiroth cradled his head and softly spoke to him. 

“You're staying with me cloud. I promise to try and get my bearings back with you. Please? Give me some time.”

Nodding in understanding, cloud released himself and stood up and calmly spoke. 

“It's time to get to work.”

That statement made zack look at him as if he had gone mad. 

“No cloud. You just got back from junon. Not to mention what had just happened. You're not going anywhere.”

“But zack..”

“He's right cloud. I'll inform lazard and garren. You are on leave for today.”

Cloud really wanted to argue with sephiroth, but after what happened, he knew that he can't. And so reluctantly, cloud nodded and watched the others get ready to go. 

Once all was done, the four left with a gentle kiss to cloud before leaving.   
Sephiroth, who was more than subdued, barely gave cloud a kiss before he left. 

Never seeing the door being closed by a distraught cloud who immediately crumpled to the ground. 

 

“Sephiroth. You realise that you are making things much worse for cloud. By avoiding his affections, you're inadvertently hurting him more than what happened this morning. Either confront this head on or let him go.”

Frowning at what angeal had said, sephiroth calmly pulled angeal gently and spoke. 

“To let him go means that cloud can't be with any of us. And that's not right. My mistake shouldn't cost you all.”

“Then deal with this sephiroth. Cloud has already forgave you, so have we. It's time to forgive yourself. If not for your sake, then for cloud's.”

And with that, angeal squeezed his hand and walked away. Leaving behind an anxious sephiroth to really think about what he's done. 

 

'Strife. You ok son?’  
“No, im not.”  
'Talk to me kid. What's going on?’

Cloud sat by the door, crying for twenty minutes since they left. He knew what was wrong with sephiroth, knew that this had hurt him as much as it hurt cloud.   
Cloud also knows that the only real fix is for him to leave this relationship with the other four - a relationship he had been in for four years. 

That kind of history is hard to let go of, he was going to do this, he'll need someone to talk to. Hence why cloud called garren. 

Mack garren is a SOLDIER first class who is in charge of one of the army units, furthermore, he trained cloud and made the young man his S.I.C. 

Mack was extremely fond of cloud and would always look out for him, much the same way as zack does. 

 

'Where are you?’  
“I'm at Sephiroth's place. Sir? Can i come to yours? Just for a little while. Please?”  
'You know you don't need to ask. Come, i'll be here’.

With that, garren hung up. Cloud hated to do this, especially now, but sephiroth wasn't giving him a choice. He can't, or rather WON'T touch him in the fear that he may hurt him again. So cloud was making the decision himself. 

If sephiroth really, REALLY loved cloud - he'll let go and forgive himself. 

If not - cloud was prepared to let all four of them go and forsake his own happiness to allow sephiroth his own. 

And with a heavy heart and tears still falling, cloud left. 

Hoping and praying that sephiroth will forgive himself and cloud too. 

 

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hard truths need to be heard...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> I should also point out that some chapters follow directly from the one previous.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 4

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

When Mack opened his door, what he didn't expect to see was a heavily crying cloud on his doorstep. 

“Oh kid..”  
That was all it took for cloud to crumble and for mack to pull him into a warm hug and close the door behind him. 

 

“Are you alright now?”  
“Yeah. Sorry.”  
“Oh kid. You don't need to apologise.”

It took twenty minutes to get cloud to calm down a little. Whatever was going on was affecting the usually calm man greatly. 

With an arm around his shoulders, mack pulled him closer and turned to speak to him. 

“Cloud? I'm here for you, no matter what the problem is. I will never abandon you, so, talk to me.”

Nodding in gratitude, cloud roughly wiped away his tears when mack caught his wrist and with a tissue, wiped them away for him. Getting the response he wanted from cloud - a laugh, mack smiled and patiently waited for cloud to speak. 

“Something happened with sephiroth. He, i don't know. He may have had a nightmare and the next thing i knew. He was hurting me.”

Frowning but understanding, mack merely squeezed his shoulder before allowing cloud to continue. 

“He. He strangled me then he threw me against his bedroom wall. He crushed my larynx and cracked my head open. I know he didn't mean to do it, the other's know that too. But now? He won't even look at me. I'm prepared to walk away to keep him happy if he can't get passed this. I don't want to be alone, i love them all so, so much. But i love them enough to let him go." This wasn't what he was expecting but nevertheless mack carefully pulled cloud into his arms and held him tightly against his body as cloud slowly began to cry himself to sleep. 

Something had to be done. Cloud was a lovely, young man. He valued his intelligence, cunning, skills but more importantly? He valued his life. Garren and his wife were very fond of cloud and went as far as calling him kin. A title that cloud took with open arms and a tearful thanks. It was no surprise that cloud felt homesick, having been away from his town for so long. To have another family here meant a lot. Of Course they would never replace his own mum though, mack and his wife made that clear. 

It goes without saying that if anything were to happen, mack would do everything in his power to protect cloud. And he was going to do just that. 

Carefully picking up cloud, mack placed him down in his spare room, covered him up with a blanket and left. 

He had a general to speak to… 

 

“Commander hewley, commander rhapsodos!!”

Stopping at their names being called, angeal immediately frowned at the look that major garren was throwing the pair, and before he could even ask what was wrong, mack merely strove passed the pair and his words as he made his way immediately worried angeal and genesis respectively. 

“Me and our general are going to chat. Now.”

He didn't even wait for permission as he barged straight into sephiroth's office.   
Before sephiroth could even frown, mack spoke up first. 

“Angeal, genesis sirs? Please get fair and return. I won't speak until then.”

Frowning but understanding, angeal did just that. 

It didn't take long for angeal to return with zack. And before zack could even ask what was going on, mack spoke up. 

“You. How stupid are you?”  
“Major!!!!....”  
Ignoring angeal's warning, mack carried on as if he didn't have a death wish. 

“Look. I don't care what you do in your private life, i don't. However, please tell me why i have a broken cloud in my apartment prepared to let you all go for your sake general?”

Immediately hearing that, sephiroth, genesis, angeal and zack had paled and before any of them can even get a word in, mack carried straight on. 

“Now. I don't pretend to know about all of this, but i've been married for fifteen years to know that every relationship has ups and downs. What happened to cloud is bad, yes but he loves you sir. He's prepared to leave you to ensure that you are happy. But the truth is? Sir? You're hurting him and that's one thing i won't allow. You know how i feel about the boy. And so with great respect i ask you. 

FIX THIS MESS OR SO HELP ME, I WILL SO YOU PAIN.”

And with that, mack left without a word and went back to his home. 

The balls in their court now… 

“Seph? I know how guilty your feeling. But please? I can't lose cloud. He's been my best friend way before all of this happened. I won't choose between you all, so don't make me.”

Was all zack could muster the strength to say. 

Sighing heavily, sephiroth merely walked out of his office with a command that made them all smile. 

“Well then, let's get cloud back.”

 

And so here they all are.   
Standing in mack's home away from home with cloud in his wife's arms and sephiroth looking completely out of place but determined to make this right. 

But first things first. 

“Major garren.”  
“Sir?”  
“While i don't appreciate what you did, storming in to my office like that. I thank you for doing so.”

Smiling softly, mack merely nodded in gratitude before sephiroth spoke again.

“Did cloud tell you what happened this morning?”

Sighing heavily, mack decided to be honest, it appears that they all needed to be. 

“Yes and no. Yes, i was made aware of what you did to cloud. And no, i don't know what happened to you, sir.”

Turning to face garren, sephiroth merely nodded in confirmation before he turned to kneel beside cloud and mack's wife, hannah. 

Holding out his hand in silent permission to hold cloud's own, sephiroth smiled when cloud placed a shaky hand in his and softly spoke. 

“Major garren here has informed me that i am a stupid man.”

Now that got cloud looking confused and amused in equal measure. 

Taking this moment to carry on, sephiroth gently squeezed his hand and proceeded to finish of his speech. 

“I am indeed that cloud. I'm having a hard time letting what happened go, but. I am trying to do so, so please cloud? Stay with us. With me? I never meant to hurt you even more than i already have.”

Cloud allowed hannah to wipe away his tears and softly spoke through his sobs. 

“You're already are. My hand? You're barely holding it. Look.”

Sure enough, cloud was wiggling his fingers as if they weren't entwined with sephiroth's own.

“I'm not an idiot seph. I know full well what SOLDIERS are capable of. Hell, my first training match with zack had gave me two broken ribs and it traumatised him. But, i managed to get through to zack, and i made him realise something. I took one of the training swords and i impaled myself in the leg with it. I swear i've never seen zack swear so much and once he healed me, he ripped me a new one. But, he understood why i did it. Seph? I'm human, yes, i can get hurt much easier than you all. But, that's why i train harder than most, because i'm human. Don't hold me with kid gloves, i'm a commander for a reason. Don't insult that. Insult me…”

At that moment, hannah had chosen to speak from her own experience. With a firm nod from mack that it was ok to speak, she cleared her throat and spoke. 

“My first encounter with mack in bed? He broke my leg and dislocated my shoulder. It took me three weeks to get him to kiss me. I hated that, i was dating him for six months and that meant a lot to us. I wasn't about to let a bruised ego and broken bones deter me. So, i did something drastic. I rammed my fist into his closed window and made him watch as i bled. I told him that nothing other than him killing me would make me leave. Yes, i have since then suffered a few nicks and bumps along the way, but mack respects me, us and what we have. General sephiroth, sir? You are dealing more damage out here than what you supposedly did.”

Smiling in understanding, sephiroth calmly stood up and squeezed cloud's hand tighter than before which made cloud smile. 

Zack meanwhile, decided that the atmosphere was a bit too heavy and dulled out some humour. 

“So, Mrs garren? Did old mack here break the bed Too?”  
That caused angeal and genesis to both smack him upside the head and cloud, hannah, mack and sephiroth to laugh. 

“Cloud? Will you come back with Me?”  
Smiling in confirmation, cloud was pulled into a warm hug by hannah and with a lingering kiss to his temple, hannah stood up with cloud and pushed him into sephiroth's waiting arms. 

“Thank-you major.”  
“It's no problem sir. We'll talk about this later more, if you want to.”

Smiling that he would, the five left.   
They had a lot to talk about. 

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was never going to be a easy fix...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> Thanks so, so much for your attention and comments for this story!!!  
> Here's two more chapters for today.   
> Enjoy and let me know what you all think of this!!!  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 5

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

They talked.   
They all talked long and hard.   
It was clear that what happened may happen again, especially since they didn't know why it happened in the first place. They wondered if they should ask hojo about this - yeah, that idea was immediately shut down. 

“Cloud. I truly am sorry for what i said and did.”

Currently, sephiroth had a willing cloud in his arms and was wondering how it was possible after all that he had done. 

Sighing, cloud merely placed his head underneath sephiroth's chin and spoke. 

“I know. Can we let this matter go now? What's done is done and that won't change. Can we move on. For all of our sake?”

And so they did. They decided that since sephiroth's room needed to be fixed, they would stay at angeal's apartment for the time being. They all had their own respective places, but it was nice to spend their free time with the other. Despite common and popular belief, they didn't actually see each other much. 

Everything was fine - until two weeks later…. 

 

It was the next day and genesis, cloud and sephiroth were in the lobby and were going to be conducting a training exercise. 

“Now men. Today we're going to the outskirts. We have hidden commander hewley and lieutenant fair within a ten mile radius, you are to locate and retrieve the pair. The area is booby-trapped and is guarded by commander strife's here men disguised as mercenaries.   
They have been ordered to act accordingly and as such, will not hesitate to shoot first.   
Are we clear?

YES SIR!!”

And with that, the men headed out. 

It was a nice day and there was a breeze in the air. Cloud, wearing a navy blue t-shirt, navy blue combat trousers and a sky blue scarf surrounding his neck and his dual swords in a harness on his back, was ready for anything. He was currently fiddling with the two hunter knifes that were strapped to each upper thigh, two a leg and was jogged out of his musings by genesis. 

 

“Sweetheart. You ok?”  
“Yeah, just a little tired, that's all.”  
“Do you need to throw up again? That comes with the territory of head trauma.”  
“I'm good gen. Honest.”

Letting the conversation go, genesis carded his hand through cloud's hair and observed the exercise taking place in front of him. 

Sephiroth was watching the session on a monitor when he was hit with another headache of a much bigger scale. 

'kill the nibelheim child. Kill him now. End his existence’

Sephiroth was fighting the voice, was internally screaming 'No, i won't!’, but the strange, female voice was adamant that he did. 

'He needs to go. He's not worthy’.

And immediately, something inside sephiroth's head just snapped. 

 

Cloud and genesis saw the look on sephiroth's face and immediately ran to get sephiroth away from the general vicinity. With a firm command to his officer to carry on with the training, cloud and genesis bolted for a secluded area. 

 

“Cloud!!! You need to get away. He's only following you, he's completely avoiding me. Which is rather insulting.”

Laughing off gen's remark, cloud was about to respond when sephiroth jumped in his path and swung his sword straight at him. 

Cloud barely managed to pick up his own swords and parry with the man. All you could hear was the clashes of metal hitting. Genesis who had seen sephiroth leap forward, calmly awoke his rapier and fired off a few low heated flares at the man. Yes, they will burn if they made contact. But, if they can distract sephiroth from cloud? So be it. 

Cloud saw and knew what genesis was doing and just as he was going to dodge the incoming fireballs, sephiroth plunged straight at him and spun him towards the attack. 

It burnt like hell, but cloud had bigger problems. Sephiroth was pulling him closer and just as he was about to impale him with masamune - angeal and zack blocked the blade - by the skin of their teeth. Apparently, cloud's men had notified the pair and immediately aborted the training exercise and were ordered to standby and wait for further instructions. 

Cloud was unceremoniously thrown into the air and genesis swiftly jumped up and caught him mid air. 

Grunting with the feeling of being caught with such force, cloud blinked open his eyes and immediately saw a worried genesis looking down on him. 

“Sweetheart? You ok?”  
“Yeah. Yeah i'm ok, i got burnt though.”

Immediately hearing that, genesis gently put cloud down, erected a barrier around the pair and checked cloud's back. And sure enough, there were scorch marks on his back, although they didn't break through his top, it was a little bit torn. 

A clash of metal made genesis turn and see angeal fighting sephiroth with zack cradling his right arm. 

“Sephiroth!!! Enough!!!”

Stopping at that, sephiroth calmly pushed angeal backwards and turned to see garren standing there. 

“Ah. Major garren. Here to save the day, are we?”

Mack however didn't respond, he merely threw a sphere into the sky and a large barrier enveloped the entire area. 

Cloud was leaning against genesis who merely pulled him closer and watched as sephiroth slowly fell to the ground in a heap. Whatever was in the barrier only seemed only to affect sephiroth though, the other three were still standing. 

“Angeal?!?! Heal the lieutenant, genesis? Get cloud away from here. I'll deal with the general.”

Nodding in agreement, genesis released his own barrier and as soon as he stood up, cloud immediately fell to the ground - out cold. 

“CLOUD!!!”

Genesis didn't know what to think of what had happened. One moment they were getting up, the next thing he knew, cloud had fallen. And sephiroth wasn't awake yet either. 

Picking cloud up bridal style, genesis gave him a firm kiss to his forehead, gauged his temperature to find it dangerously high before he saw mack holding a barely conscious sephiroth up whilst zack was having angeal heal his   
Suspected broken arm.

“Genesis? Let's go to my place.”

Nodding in agreement, the SOLDIERS left. 

The mystery of sephiroth's condition was getting a lot harder to solve. 

And now cloud had fallen too.   
This just keeps on getting better…. 

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last thing any of them needed was an outside influence to emerge..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> This chapter follows directly from the one previous.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 6

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“Hannah!!!”

Immediately hearing her name being bellowed, hannah appeared and all but charged in to help out. 

“Genesis? Put cloud on the sofa over here. Angeal? Would you mind helping me pull out the fold out bed for the general?”

Smiling softly in agreement, angeal placed zack down in the chair that's by the sofa that's holding the unconscious cloud. And once he was sure that zack wasn't going into a state of shock, angeal left to help out hannah. 

Checking sephiroth's vitals and cloud's also mack frowned deeply at his temperature and went to the bathroom to get a washcloth to try and cool cloud down a little. 

 

“What happened out there? Seph seemed fine. So why? Why did he go after cloud again and why is cloud out cold? Genesis?”

Sighing heavily, genesis gave zack a hug and murmured in his ear. 

“I don't know puppy. But we'll figure this out. Ok?” Without waiting for a response, genesis placed a lingering kiss to his temple whist hannah and angeal had came back and angeal had placed sephiroth's still unconscious form on it. 

“Hey mack? What was in the materia that you used?”

Smiling at genesis's question, mack threw said sphere over and explained. 

“I have been experimenting and found a way to combine sleep and barrier together. I wasn't sure if it would work on the general though, but i’m glad it did.”

And with that, mack placed cloud's head into his lap and softly stroked his sweat laced hair away from his face and wiped away the moisture with the cold cloth he brought out. 

Angeal took this moment to try and explain to mack what was going on when a knock on the door signaled a guest - a guest none were expecting. 

Opening the door, hannah was greeted by a shock of red hair and a serious looking partner. 

“Oh. Mack? We have turks here.”  
Was all hannah had to say about this. 

And sure enough, in came tseng and reno, in his usual messy self. 

“To what do i owe the pleasure of you two gents in my house?”

Even though he had a smile on his face, mack wasn't actually happy to see these two. 

“Reno. Why are you here?”  
“Hey puppy. It's nice to see you too.”  
“Hey!!! Enough with the 'puppy’ name calling!!”

“Enough. Both of you, stop.”  
Was all tseng had to say to stop the pair. 

While he had no problems with zack being friends with reno, tseng knew that now wasn't the time for it. 

“We received reports that general sephiroth had attacked you, commanders hewley, rhapsodos and strife and lieutenant fair. Is this true?”

Sighing heavily, mack was about to respond when suddenly sephiroth spoke up first. 

“Not intentionally. But yes, your reports are accurate.”

Nodding in understanding, tseng knew that the man had honour, no matter what the circumstances were. Just as he was about to ask for the details, tseng noticed a very unconscious, sweating cloud laying on the couch and asked what was ailing him. 

“Has something happen to commander strife?”

That was news to sephiroth, seeing as how he immediately went to cloud's side. 

Sephiroth could see just how bad cloud's state was. He was emitting so much heat, you wouldn't be deemed crazy if you thought the central heating was on. 

Sephiroth eased cloud's hair away from his face and was disturbed by how laboured his breathing was as well. 

“He's suffering from a fever. And a severe one too. He needs to be taken to the hospital.”

Nodding in agreement, mack carefully picked the man up, carried him bridal style and headed to do just that with genesis following. 

“Now then, tseng. You, reno and myself will speak with lazard. Angeal? Stay here with Mrs garren and zack and await on an update from major garren and genesis.”

And with nods all round, the trio left. 

Hoping that there will be good news from both lazard's meeting with sephiroth and from the hospital with cloud. 

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are dark times ahead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!  
> I can't thank you all enough for the reception this has gained.   
> I'm posting up two chapters today and the next chapter will be up tomorrow.   
> Enjoy and comments of any kind are always welcome.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 7

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.) 

 

'It's bad angeal. Cloud's fever is way too high. There trying to bring it down to normal. 

“I see. Thank-you genesis. I'll speak to you soon.”

'Will do’.

And with that, angeal hung up on genesis. 

This wasn't a great day. First sephiroth attacks them, then the turks are involved and now? Cloud's health has deteriorated so quickly. 

Zack meanwhile, was having a fit. He was beside himself with worry and anger. 

“Zack? It'll be alright. We have the best medical team on this side of the coast. Trust that. Ok?”

Nodding in understanding, angeal wrapped an arm around his shoulders and waited the evening out. And with hannah bringing by tea for the pair, they watched the hour hand go by. 

 

“General sephiroth. Are you safe to be around? That's what we need to know.”

They weren't beating around the bush.   
No sooner had the two turks and sephiroth had arrived at lazard's office, the director of SOLDIER went straight to business. 

“I can assure you. The only person that's in danger is commander strife.”

“Care to explain?”

“Not particularly. I'm not trying to be difficult. I would explain the situation but as of now i don't know why myself.”

Not liking the situation but with little choice, lazard spoke. 

“Very well. Tseng? Reno, for now you, along with your other duties will be checking in on general sephiroth. Is this okay with you general?”

“Of Course.”

And with that, sephiroth calmly nodded goodbye to the men and left - there's a group of men that are waiting for him. 

 

It took two hours before cloud had been stabilised.   
The doctor wasn't really sure what caused the fever in the first place, but were satisfied that for the time being, cloud's life wasn't in anymore danger. 

Sephiroth was watching the nurses moving around cloud's room before mack spoke up. 

“He's sedated for the time being. They want to monitor his condition for a couple of days.”

Nodding in understanding, sephiroth turned and left, not however without genesis speaking up. 

“Cloud will want you here when he awakes sephiroth. Don't walk away.”

Inclining his head but without saying anything, sephiroth walked away. 

Genesis meanwhile, was not impressed and immediately he grabbed hold of his wrist and made him face cloud.   
Once he knew that sephiroth was looking at the man, genesis spoke through gritted teeth - the only thing keeping his anger at bay was the fact that there in a hospital. 

“Cloud loves you. Cloud needs you. Don't make this all about you for once in your life. Whatever is going on, we will find a way to deal with this. But don't let it be at the cost of cloud's happiness. He knew that you would never hurt him - so please? If anything, believe that and stay. Stay where you are.”

Smiling as the general's resolve was fading, mack took this moment to caress cloud's head and silently made his leave. 

“Major.”  
Turning sideways to his general, mack inclined his head and waited for sephiroth to continue. 

“We will be taking to you about this later.”  
Smiling in understanding, mack saluted and left. 

 

 

“Seph!!!!”

It's been three days since cloud was released from the hospital and his fever had finally diminished. The doctor still didn't have a clue as to what happened but the most important thing is that cloud was fine. 

Well - he was more than fine right now. 

Cloud had managed to get through sephiroth's stubborn pride and was presently underneath the general, grinding his hips upwards and wanting more than that. 

“You sure about this cloud? Once i start, i won't be stopping any time soon.” Was sephiroth's heavily, heated voice that whispered into his ear. 

It was a warning, a confirmation of what's to come, a cold, solid truth. 

And all cloud did was wrap his legs around the general's waist and pulled him closer. 

That was all the confirmation sephiroth needed to carry on. Lowering himself down, silver hair becoming a curtain for the pair, sephiroth ghosted his lips over cloud's, claimed his in a heated kiss and their lovemaking had begun… 

 

'He's mine. Nibel child. And you will fall.’

Immediately hearing that and seeing his death played out, cloud screamed himself awake and immediately zack and angeal came rushing into his room. 

Sephiroth had returned to his own home to see how the repairs to his bedroom were coming along and said that he'll be back later tomorrow and genesis was studying the materia that mack had showed him, in the case that they may need it again. Cloud was staying at angeal's apartment per the doctor's advice that someone should monitor his condition in case he sufferers a relapse. 

 

Cloud was cradling his head, tears were falling down his face and he was shaking tremendously. Carefully, zack gently pulled cloud into his arms and rocked him back and forth, all the while murmuring into his ear. 

“Shhh. Shhh cloud, you're alright, it was just a nightmare. You're alright.”

Angeal came back from apparently the kitchen - judging from the cup of tea he was holding. 

Placing the cup onto the bedside cabinet, angeal sat behind cloud, carded his hand through cloud's hair and spoke softly through cloud's still laboured breathing. 

“Do you want to talk about it cloud?”

Cloud merely ducked his head lower, tucked his knees to his chest and began whimpering. Zack and angeal were sharing a worried glance towards the other at cloud's state. This wasn't like cloud. Yes, he had nightmares, especially after long and dark missions. But he always talked about it when an uneasy sleep claimed him. But now? Cloud was avoiding the issue and that alone was warrant enough to let the pair know that something was wrong - really wrong. 

They just sat there and waited as cloud slowly began to calm down a little and softly spoke through his sobs. 

“I. I heard a voice. I, it sounded like a way a mother would speak to her child. And then? It, she said that i will die…”

This wasn't good, wasn't good at all.   
Zack could see the EXACT same look on cloud's face that sephiroth had during the training exercise almost a week ago. 

And judging by the look on angeal's face, he saw it too. 

“I'm. I'm going to die. Aren't i?”

They were so caught up in their worry that they nearly missed what cloud had asked. And immediately angeal wrapped an arm around his shoulders, brought his head underneath his chin and silenced the sobs. 

 

“Absolutely not cloud. Not any time soon. I won't lie to you, but i think that whatever is going on with sephiroth may be affecting you also. We will all sit down and discuss this further with bluntness. But for now? Come and drink your tea and we'll stay until you sleep.”

And with that, angeal passed said beverage over, allowed cloud to take his time and then repositioned them all so that cloud was sandwiched between the pair and with a gentle squeeze to his shoulder by angeal and a lingering kiss to his forehead by zack, cloud drifted slowly back to sleep. 

 

Something was going on. It was bad enough that sephiroth was trying to kill cloud and was saying a voice was telling him to do so. But now cloud was claiming the exact same thing?

This wasn't a separate incident.   
They were connected… 

And it wasn't going to be settled peacefully. 

This will be settled with red. 

The red of blood… 

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They could no longer play ignorant...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter follows directly from the one previous.   
> :)

Of voices that aren't known part 8

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“Are you telling me that cloud's hearing the exact same thing as sephiroth?”

Genesis's words were laced with cynicism. And you couldn't really blame him - spoken out loud, anyone would think that they had lost the plot. 

But the haunted look on cloud's face and the dark frown settled on sephiroth's own was the only thing that stopped them all from laughing at the sheer stupidity of this situation. 

Removing his coat and sword, genesis sat down beside cloud and placed a hand on his head, carded his fingers through his blond hair and spoke softly. 

“Tell us exactly what happened in the dream cloud. And then sephiroth will tell us what happened when he tried to play out S+M in the bedroom which failed immensely.”

Snorting at that, zack looked up to see angeal groaning at his statement while sephiroth and mack were Smirking and hannah was holding her stomach tightly as waves of laughter were crippling her. 

And cloud - cloud merely ducked his head lower and tucked it beneath his chin and murmured him not to be so vulgar. 

That caused genesis to smile triumphantly and waited for cloud to speak. 

“It came out of nowhere. I didn't see anything that i can remember. And then, a voice broke through and said ‘He's mine nibel child and you will fall’. That's what it said - exactly that. And then..”

Seeing that cloud wasn't going to carry on, genesis was about to speak up when cloud began to cry and finish his account of his dream. 

“I.. I was killed. I died in a, i think in a reactor. I don't know who did it or how but i physically felt being killed. And that's when i awoke.”

Shushing the young man in his lap, genesis rocked them back and forth as he shared a look with the other's here. 

“This isn't normal. That goes without saying, but what's concerning me is that it's only affecting cloud here. None of you are exhibiting this. So, it stands to reason that it's primarily just those two.”

It made sense what mack had said. However, it's the underlying message that felt as if they were drenched in ice cold water. 

“If. If i'm affecting seph. Then, then i'll go. I'm sorry…”

Genesis merely pulled cloud in tighter and softly abolished his words. 

“No sweetheart. You nor sephiroth are going anywhere. This will get sorted out. Sephiroth? It's your turn. What happened?”

“I was experiencing on both occasions a headache and then a woman's voice like cloud had described it told me to kill him, calling cloud the same thing - the nibel child. Next thing i felt was as if i was shoved away from my own body and then - well you know what happened.”

Nodding in confirmation, angeal wrapped his hand in sephiroth's own and softly spoke. 

“It's alright seph. As mack said, this seems to be situated with you two. We'll figure this out, just as we always do.”

Sighing heavily, sephiroth brought up a subject that he knew would get the other's a reason to shout at him. 

“I think that maybe i should see hojo. If anything, he may know.”

Yeah, that was a dumb thought. 

“Are you mad?!?! Sephiroth?!? If you go to him, what do you think he'll do to cloud. Do you really think that hojo will help or hinder you?”

It was definitely a bad thing if zack used his full name, unlike how he normally shortened his name. Which annoyed sephiroth to no end as when zack pronounces it, he whines. 

“I don't see another way to deal with this zack. I won't allow hojo to see cloud or even come remotely close to him. That i will promise you all on.”

Surprisingly it was cloud who softly spoke up through his sobs to which genesis and hannah dealt with - cue the tickles from genesis and a loving caress with tissues to his face by hannah. 

“If it helps you, then i don't mind going to see hojo.”

Now that got cloud a few glares. Fortunately, mack was in a calmer state of mind to speak. 

“No cloud. That's not an option. I know that you are willing to do anything to help and we all know that. But, none of us would ever ask that of you. That being said, sir? Do you think that seeing that madman is the only, valid option right now?”

“Yes. It is.”

“Ok then. But, i'm going with you.”  
“Major. That's not necessary.”  
“Maybe. But i'm not going to let you go there alone. I'm particularly not about to send angeal, genesis and zack down there near him either. I'm nothing special, these three are and that's just the excuse he'll need.”

Smiling softly in gratitude, they had decided that the situation has been settled for now and that the atmosphere needs to be lightened up a bit and so the conversation went off to something fun. 

For now, they'll let the matter rest.   
Another day will come…   
And they can deal with this then. 

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything fades to green....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again!!!  
> I'm posting up two more chapters today and the next update will be tomorrow.   
> Enjoy and comments of any kind are always welcome.   
> Also, this is late i know, but i apologise for the Pacing of the chapters and the length of them too.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 9

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“Ah. Sephiroth my boy. To what do i owe the pleasure of your company?”

God, he hates hojo.   
This man gives all scientists a bad name. However, say what you will, the man does know what to do. He's also a master of manipulation. He's a genius at it too and that's a dangerous combination to have 

“Professor. I think that my mako level has been declining. Can you spare the time to check for me?”

“Of Course. And i see you brought major garren here too.”

“Yes. He's here to help me if needed.”

Turning his nose up at the man, hojo merely gestured to sephiroth to sit on the examination table and began to check his prize possession out. 

 

While sephiroth was in the care - and that's putting it lightly, of hojo, cloud was about to get his men into position on their latest mission when he received a phone call from someone unexpected but nevertheless a welcomed distraction. 

“Strife here.”

‘I should hope so’.

“Kunsel!!! Hey!!”

Cloud had been introduced to kunsel by zack in their second year as friends, kunsel was like a ronin of legends. He was hardly around but he knew everything. And immediately, the pair hit it off, which was a relief to zack in case he wasn't around and he needed someone to come and keep cloud company. 

‘So. I hear our general was on a rampage of sorts. Is that true?’

Sighing heavily, cloud watched as his men were talking amongst themselves, nearly missing kunsel's worried question. 

‘Cloud?’  
“Oh sorry. Erm kunsel? Can we discuss  
this in person?”

‘Sure cloud. When?’

“Five hours time?”  
‘Sounds good. Call me when return?’

“Yeah.”

And with that, cloud pocketed his phs and made his way over to his men. Once he had their attention and gave them the rundown of the mission, the men disbanded and left. 

 

“You puppy. Are very energetic today aren't you? Well, more than usual.”

Laughing at angeal's words, zack laid beside him and allowed the post coital feeling to settle over him. 

Zack had the morning off, as did angeal and so they decided to do something about it - that led to two hours of fun in the bed. 

“Cloud's got a mission today and seph is at hojo's lab. I guess that i needed a distraction. Not that i would ever use you in that way ‘geal.”

Smiling softly, angeal pulled zack into his arms, placing a kiss to his temple, angeal spoke. 

“I know zack. It'll be alright, sephiroth won't stay longer than necessary and mack is with him too. And cloud's mission is just outside of HQ, so he'll be back later this afternoon. You, however, have a training session with the seconds. Time to get ready.”

Groaning at that which caused angeal to chuckle, zack got himself up, headed to the shower and got ready for duty.   
Twenty minutes later, with angeal going in the shower afterwards whilst zack ate the breakfast angeal had made, zack received a phone call. 

Furrowing his brows, zack pressed the accept button. 

“Zack here”.

‘Now i see where cloud got it from.’

“Kunsel! Hey buddy, you ok?”

‘Yep. Just making sure that you haven't slept in, we've got training to do in thirty minutes time.’

“You're funny. Yeah i'm up, i’ll see you soon. Oh and by the way, how do you know how cloud answers the phone?”

'I spoke to him about an hour or so. He seemed upset.’

Sighing heavily but in understanding, zack tried to explain why. 

“Yeah. Seph, he's been having a headache of sorts. This isn't really a conversation we can have over the phone. I'll tell you more when we're done. Ok”.

'Sure. See you in a bit’.

And with that, zack turned to see angeal frowning at him in worry. 

“Kunsel probably already heard what happened in the training exercise. He's trustworthy.”

“That's not the issue zack. This could be a lot worse than a headache, especially with the situation repeating itself with cloud. I understand your need to talk to someone else, just be careful of how you speak of it.”

Nodding in understanding, zack got up and ready, and with a warm, one armed embrace from angeal, the pair headed to work. 

 

This was a standard examination. And yet it didn't feel like it. Hojo was currently picking and prodding at sephiroth as if he were an unknown creature and sephiroth wished he could just leave.   
Giving mack a sideways glance though, and sephiroth could see that he wasn't the only one who felt that way. 

“There's definitely a drop in your mako level sephiroth. I start off your next round now then.”

Frowning at hojo's glee to inflict pain, sephiroth merely nodded in confirmation and before he knew it, hojo had already began to implant the tubes to his arms and administered the mako. 

“You there major. Watch my perfect specimen for me. I have matters to attend to.”

“Of Course sir.” However, hojo was already gone by the time that mack had spoke. 

“I really don't like that man.”

“I agree. Major? The minute i register a headache, contact genesis and immediately get him to find cloud.”

“You believe that cloud will be affected from so far away?”

“That i don't know. However, hojo took my blood sample, he never did that before. If he were to find out about this, cloud would indeed be his next experiment. And with my position as general, it won't be enough to secure his safety, he'll just go straight over my head. I promised you all that i will keep him away from here.”

 

Nodding in understanding, the pair sat in silence, they could hear hojo in the other room and they simply didn't want to take the chance that he could be listening in - no matter how quiet these two were, with hojo, enhancements mean nothing. That was the reason they limited the use of cloud's name here, hojo knew that sephiroth was in a five way relationship with the other's, knew who they were. But he didn't know what cloud looked like, or his full name either. The less they mentioned the man - the better the chances of keeping him away from hojo. 

That's all that they could hope for. 

 

'Something's wrong’.

It was bizarre, one moment cloud was overlooking the map of the area with his lieutenant. The next thing he knew, cloud was feeling the onset of a sedative being administered into his system, having been sedated before in the past, he knew the feeling all too well.

Leaning heavily against the bonnet of the vehicle he travelled in, cloud swept his fingers through his hair and tried to ride it out. 

“Commander strife, sir. Are you alright?”

Lieutenant becks calmly asked his C.O, placing a hand gently to the side of cloud's face, becks immediately blanched at the heat being emitted. 

“Sir. I need to get you to the doctor. You have a high fever.”

But cloud was barely registering what his S.I.C was telling him - as his vision was turning green….. 

'Seph’... 

 

“Major. Get genesis… NOW.”  
Hearing that, mack immediately got up, stood by the doorway so that he could still see and reach sephiroth relatively quickly and dialed up genesis. 

“C'mon. C'mon, pick up. Genesis? Find cloud. General sephiroth is starting to get that look again.” With the location they're in, it's best to keep the situation downplayed to those who would do harm - eg, hojo. 

'Shit. Cloud's still away. I'll get a ride out there from reno, he's skulking around. Garren? Stay with sephiroth. Don't let him out of your sight.’

Thankfully, genesis understood what garren was trying to tell him without being told the whole thing. 

Without even responding, mack hung up on genesis, fast walked over to sephiroth and held his hand tightly. Hopefully this will help him ride out this storm…. 

“You're alright sir. It's alright.”

“That boy could never take the pain, well, above what's expected of him. Get him home major, he's done anyway.”

Hojo spoke up, gladly mistaking sephiroth's behaviour down to the chemicals being pumped into his body. 

Looking up at hojo, mack paled at those words but nevertheless helped sephiroth up once the tubes were removed. 

Taking slow steps down the corridor, sephiroth kept on muttering on, unfortunately, mack could hear his words.   
“The nibel child must die. He will ruin me. He needs to die. I understand mother, he will not harm you. He will not live beyond today.”

Anger was boiling inside mack at what sephiroth was saying, but he knew that sephiroth didn't mean a single word. It didn't help though...

“Major garren.”

And here's tseng.. This just keeps on getting better. Doesn't it?”

“Tseng. Help me get general sephiroth back to my place. Do this? And i will tell you everything.”

Raising an eyebrow, tseng countered his demand. 

“Last i checked major. I don't answer to you. What if i don't?”

“Then the general will kill us then go after commander strife. Any other stupid questions?”

Frowning immediately, tseng noticed sephiroth clenching his hand as if it was holding masamune and helped support the great man. 

“I want full details major.”

“And you'll get them - on the condition that no-one else hears of this. And i mean lazard, hojo and the president. Although i’m doubtful to that one.”

“I understand. You have my word. Let's go, it's not safe to talk out here and the general is losing his consciousness.”

And with that, the trio left. 

With a fleeting thought by mack. 

'Cloud. Hang on kid. Just a little bit longer.’

 

It shouldn't be possible. But it was. 

Every single fibre in cloud's being was causing him tremendous amount of pain. Even the wind ripping through his hair hurt. 

Cloud was distinctly aware of lieutenant beck lowering him to the ground and a vehicle pulling up near his own. He just about registered genesis kneeling down with one knee between his parted, bent legs and the other by the side of his head when he heard the voice again. 

'My son is coming for you. Child of nibelheim. Your death won't be painful.’

Immediately hearing that, he saw it - masamune's wielder and masamune itself. He knew what was coming before it did….. 

Genesis meanwhile, was watching as cloud's eyes glazed over and tears silently fell down his face, all the while whispering into the wind for sephiroth to stop. Pulling of his red gloves and putting them by his side , genesis cupped his face and used his thumbs to wipe away the tears, all the while murmuring into his ear directly. 

 

“Sweetheart. Cloud, come back to my voice. It's not real. Sephiroth would never hurt you. Cloud? Come back.”

Reno was watching as cloud's men were returning. He knew that cloud wouldn't want them to see this, so he did something about it. 

“You're strife's S.I.C, right?”

“Yes sir. Lieutenant becks.”

“Good. Get these men back and report in. We've got your commander.”

With a salute, lieutenant becks did as reno instructed and soon only genesis,cloud and reno remained. 

Kneeling down also, reno merely watched on and noticed that cloud was starting to bleed. 

“Genesis? Strife ain't looking so good. He's hands are bleeding.”

Pulling away slightly, genesis immediately grabbed hold of cloud's hands and began healing him, not stopping or turning around, genesis gave reno some information. 

“Sephiroth has been getting headaches. The first time he did, he threw cloud into the wall. Which cracked his head open, not however, before he crushed his larynx with a single hand. Then it happened again during the training exercise you know about. Cloud had a nightmare and resulted in him hearing a voice which said that he will die by sephiroth's hand, that and a dangerously high fever too. Apparently, sephiroth has heard this voice too - almost immediately after his headache. This is only affecting cloud here, none of us are being targeted at all.”

Frowning, reno took all of this in, he knew that it went against everything genesis believed in to tell a, for all tense of purposes - a spy about this. But reno wasn't just that, he was friends with zack, kunsel and cloud here. And he was going to make it clear. 

“I understand. Genesis? This won't go higher than us. Trust me. Now then, what do you need me to do?”

Smiling although still worried, genesis told him to contact angeal and get him to meet genesis at his home.   
With a firm but nevertheless gentle grip to his shoulder, reno did just that. 

 

Genesis carefully cradled cloud's head to his chest, and with a gentle tug of cloud's body towards himself, he swiftly bent down, put cloud's legs in the crook of his elbow and lifted cloud up bridal style, placing his discarded gloves on cloud's chest and walked over to his vehicle. Once close enough reno opened the passenger door, and with a nod of gratitude to reno, genesis laid cloud down, shut the door behind him and headed to the driving seat. 

“Reno. Meet me at my place.”

“Will do.”

Looking down at the still crying cloud, genesis re - pocketed his gloves, gently pushed away blonde hair and spoke softly. 

“Cloud. Hang on for a while. I'm going to take you to mine. Stay with me sweetheart.”

And with a heavy sigh, a hand on cloud's chest to monitor his heartbeat, genesis drove off. 

Hoping that major garren has better news for him when he calls….. 

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of course, things were never going to be this simple...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> This chapter follows directly from the one previous.   
> Enjoy!!  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 10

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“So. Sephiroth is getting murderous impulses through headaches.. Did i get that right?”

“Yeah. More or less. But, it's more than that. Cloud is suffering too.”

“How so?”

“Whenever seph gets these migraines, cloud gets a high fever. It's only happened recently though. What's more, sephiroth only wants to hurt cloud, not us. Kunsel? I'm afraid for them, especially cloud. Sephiroth with just one hand managed to break his neck and smashed his damn head open.”

And that's it. As soon as the second classes were dismissed for the day, zack and kunsel went to grab a bite to eat, found secluded area and spoke to each other. Zack knew that kunsel would never say anything about this, that and the fact that he, zack, reno and cloud were all very good friends, especially since zack and cloud were dating for four years now. That never changed how zack saw cloud - even now, zack would always look out for cloud and the other two let zack's behaviour rub off on them. 

 

“How's cloud doing?”

“Honestly? He seems to be alright. Although, i'm afraid for him. We all know that seph would never hurt him. But, what would happen if we weren't there to stop seph?”

Before kunsel could even find a way to comfort his friend, a shrill from zack's phone alerted him to a call.

Looking at the caller ID, zack smiled and answered. 

“Hey 'geal, i'm just on my way down now. So i’ll see you in a bit.”

'Zack.’

Immediately, zack knew something was wrong, if not for angeal's tone of voice, then the general sense of foreboding in his body. 

“What's happened?”

'Sephiroth had an episode in the lab and cloud has collapsed. Sephiroth is at mack's place and cloud is with genesis.”

Sighing heavily, zack murmured his thanks, letting angeal know that he was going to genesis's apartment and hung up. One look at kunsel however, and zack knew what was coming next. 

“Let's go.”

And with a grateful smile on his face, zack gathered up his discarded gear and the pair left. 

 

Cloud wasn't doing well - not at all…. 

He hadn't stopped crying since genesis brought him to his apartment. Nor, has stopped whispering for sephiroth to stop. 

Needless to say, genesis was worried about him, and rightfully so. Gently running a hand through cloud's hair, genesis pulled out his phone and speed dialed garren. He needed good news right now - he needed to know that sephiroth was fine. 

'Garren here’.

“Mack.”

'Genesis! How's my kid?’

“Not good. He's in a state of shock and sleep. How's sephiroth?”

'He's asleep. Genesis? I'm sorry but tseng knows. I had no choice but to tell him.’

“It's alright mack. I've told reno too. Angeal is coming here first, and i'm positive that the puppy will be coming here as well. I'll send angeal to yours as soon as possible. Hang on for a while.”

'No problem genesis. See you later. Give cloud my love.’

And with a confirmation that he would, genesis hung up and saw reno holding cloud's hand in his own and was softly spoke to the barely there cloud. 

“C'mon cloud. It's not real. It's just a nightmare.”

Smiling softly at reno and his surprisingly soft nature, genesis went to get the trio some food and drinks before angeal and zack arrive. 

 

It took twenty minutes but zack, along with kunsel, had arrived with angeal who they bumped into on the way. 

Getting a quick rundown from genesis, zack greeted reno and then sat down by cloud's head and softly spoke. 

“Cloud. C'mon, let me see those baby blue's of yours.” Smiling softly at the display, angeal turned to genesis and spoke. 

“I'm going to see sephiroth now. He needs someone there with him besides mack.”

“I agree. Call me when you are there? To let me know how he is?”

Smiling in confirmation, angeal placed a lingering kiss to his forehead before leaving with a call of goodbye to the other's who waved him off. 

Turning back to cloud, zack frowned and spoke to reno. 

“I take it that genesis told you then?”

“Yeah, he did. But fair? I'm not going to say anything to anyone about this, cloud's my friend too.”

Smiling softly in agreement, zack turned his attention back to cloud who was gaining his consciousness back. 

“Hey cloud. You doing ok?”  
Without saying anything, cloud merely sat up and wrapped his arms around zack's neck loosely, all the while sobbing some more. 

And all zack could do was embrace him and let it happen. When cloud's ready, he'll tell them what happened. But for now? He'll let cloud be. 

 

“Sephiroth. How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Is cloud alright?”

“Gen, zack, reno and kunsel are with him. When I left he was still unconscious but that could've changed. Let's worry about you for now, if anything were to happen to cloud, i would've heard something by now.”

Humming in response but saying nothing more, sephiroth inclined his head further onto angeal's shoulder and allowed the man to comfort him. All the while, tseng and mack were talking amongst themselves. 

“So that's what's happening?”

“Yes. As you can see, general sephiroth is lucid and aware of his surroundings and those with him. It's only when he sufferers a headache that all of this happens. Tseng? This isn't something that you can do guess work on. We only know when sephiroth tells us.”

“And what about commander strife? Couldn't he help?”

“No. He won't.”

Surprisingly it was sephiroth who spoke up. 

“Cloud doesn't know how it happens either. He just collapses soon after. You will not use him tseng.”

Nodding in understanding, tseng knew that sephiroth didn't mean to be aggressive, but he knew that cloud was a natural soldier, and that he was more vulnerable than any of them combined. 

“Very well. I'm going to take my leave now. I'll be collecting reno also. I will notify director lazard that you are of no danger to us. However, what i ask in return is that you call me when this happens again. That way, we can try and figure this problem out quicker.”

And with that, tseng left. Leaving behind a tired general and two equally concerned first class SOLDIERS who more than anything, wanted this over and done with. 

For both of Sephiroth and cloud's sake.   
And especially, cloud's life. 

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This needs to end.... You can't go at this alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thanks so much for your comments and kudos to this, it's blowing my mind!!  
> I'm aware that the chapters are mainly dialogue but, the next chapter will have action in it, as well as the following ones too. I've also added additional tags to this too. I don't know if they will be needed but it's better safe than sorry.   
> Here's one chapter now, and chapter 12 will be up later on today, i'm just putting the finishing touches to it now.   
> Enjoy!!  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 11 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

It's been two days since cloud had collapsed and sephiroth went to see hojo and everything seems to be going back to normal. Reno and kunsel had stopped by every now and then but, they were busy and the others did understand.  
Everything and everyone was going on as usual…. 

Except for cloud, that is. He wasn't saying anything about what had happened. Normally he would, it would take a few hours but cloud would always talk about it. 

However, cloud had locked himself in his room at genesis's place and was refusing to see anybody, and this was worrying everyone. 

Whatever has happened to him two days ago was clearly affecting the man and no-one could help him. Especially if they didn't know what it was that was causing him distress. 

“That's it. I'm gonna break down the damn door soon. This isn't like cloud.”

“No zack. Leave him be. Doing so will only distress cloud more. He'll eventually come around. Give cloud time.”

He knew what angeal had said was true, that destroying the door would only upset cloud more. But zack was at his wits end, cloud hasn't interacted with any of them, only going to the doctor for a mandatory check up and then returning to genesis's place, per the doctor's advice - they seriously knew that if cloud wasn't told to do so, he would've gone to his own home. From what genesis had said, cloud was only eating when genesis wasn't around, he knew that cloud was entering his kitchen and then returning back to his bedroom. Cloud was closing everyone off. 

 

Something, he had never done before.   
Even now when he's on sick leave. 

“Sephiroth? You're here?”

Indeed the man was. Sephiroth had finally felt confident to see the other's when nothing happened to him during the past two days. He knew what the situation was with cloud, he knew that his presence would set cloud off - which way good or bad? He couldn't say. But, they all knew that this had to be dealt with. If cloud wanted out of this four year romance? He'll have to tell them to their faces.

They all deserved that. Even if it meant heartbreak for all involved. 

“I am. What's more, i brought back-up.”

And sure enough, mack came through. Frowning at cloud's closed door, mack barely gave the other's a greeting before dealing with this himself. 

Like cloud, zack would only ever open up to his former mentor - it was no joke, teachers and students really did have a unique bond. So if anyone can help cloud, it'll be mack - hands down. 

Without even knocking on the door, mack pulled out a lock picking set, broke in and closed the door behind him. 

“Erm. Did the major just break into cloud's room here at gen's?”

Was zack's amused question. And judging by the amused looks on everyone else's faces? They all saw it too. However, they knew that mack would repair any damages done. It's just how he is. 

 

Cloud looked so small, so vulnerable. 

He was sitting crossed legged on the window sill surrounded by crimson red scatter cushions and a sky blue blanket over his shoulders. Mack could just about make out his white t-shirt and blue sweatpants underneath paired with grey socks. 

He really did look his age - possibly younger even. 

Calmly making his approach, mack was about to speak up when cloud began to sob and immediately mack had him in his arms. 

“Shhh cloud, it's alright. I'm here.”

Nodding that he heard, mack carried the boy over to his bed, sat down with cloud snuggled right up against his side and gently held him as cloud began to speak. 

“I know. I know that i'm worrying the other's. That i'm worrying you, but i can't shake what happened off of me. I used to be able to bounce back from these things, even seph trying to kill me.”

Smiling softly, mack merely squeezed his shoulder and waited for cloud to continue. 

“But now? I don't know what to do here. Sir? I love them so, so much but i can't even speak to them. They deserve to know, they do. But i can't...Not right now.”

Allowing the man by his side a moment of respite, mack could make out movement in the rest of genesis's apartment - there getting restless and that won't help cloud, not in the slightest. 

“Cloud? You know how much i care about you. I would do anything to ensure your safety and your happiness. However, i think that you should at least try and talk to them, if only to show them that you aren't intentionally trying to avoid them. I'll come with you, i would even go so far as to hold your hand or even take you away from here if it gets too much.  
Deal?”

And with a heavy sigh, cloud nodded in agreement and allowed mack to wrap both the blanket and his arm around his shoulders and the pair exited the room. 

However….. 

“Sir. Did you bust the lock?”

And with a mischievous grin on his face, mack guided them out. All the while enjoying cloud's giggles at his behaviour. 

 

They all heard the moment that cloud was coming out of his self made solitude.   
Cloud had only made a couple of steps before he all but collapsed on himself and immediately sephiroth was there and caught him mid fall. 

Mack merely smiled at the other's and sat down beside angeal. 

Wrapping his arms around sephiroth's neck, forgetting all about the blanket, cloud clung to the man and murmured his apologies to them all, knowing that their enhanced hearing can pick up his words. 

“I'm so, so sorry. For everything i have put you all through. I'm having a hard time here. But please? Never think that it's all because of you, it isn't.”

Smiling softly, sephiroth bent down, picked up cloud's blanket, cloud himself and headed over to where zack and genesis were sitting. Placing cloud between the pair, sephiroth sat down on the floor semi facing cloud, zack and genesis whilst his body was twisted to the angle of angeal and mack's position. 

Bringing cloud's legs into his lap, genesis began massaging the limbs while zack had cloud's torso in his arms and cloud's head tucked beneath his chin. 

“I think we all need to talk here. Cloud's suffering and sephiroth is pulling away from the rest of us. It's time to hash things out.”

And with angeal's calm but nevertheless no nonsense words, the five, plus mack dived straight in. 

This wasn't going to be fun or happy but it was necessary for them all. 

This needs to happen. 

 

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything all falls down...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> And here as promised is the second chapter for today.   
> The next update will be tomorrow sometime.   
> Enjoy and thanks again!!!  
> Comments are always welcome, of any kind.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 12

Full disclaimer applies   
I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

It's been a full week since they all had a talk regarding the REAL effects that these dreams are having on cloud. 

They all agreed that cloud needed to be reassured more than they thought he needed - but none of them were making light of this. If anything, they actually would go so far as to ask cloud for them to do so. 

Everything was fine - until cloud ran into a certain scientist. 

He had returned to duty and so far had no relapse, neither did sephiroth. So naturally, something bad had to occur to balance out the good that the past week had given him and the other four. 

 

“Ah. Fancy seeing a commander down here. Although, i don't recall seeing you before. May i ask of your name?”

Every alarm bell in cloud's system was going off. Was telling him to run, make an excuse, stay away. Unfortunately, another alarm bell was going off too - one that was making more noise than the other ones. 

The alarm to respect the senior staff - no matter what. 

“It's commander strife. Sir.”

Realisation hit hojo hard and judging by smile on his face? Cloud saw it too. 

“I see. Well then. I'll be seeing you around then.”

Add just like that? Hojo was gone. Cloud knew that encounter wasn't going to the first and last time it'll happen. 

He just hoped for it to be so.

How wrong was he……

 

It was definitely not a coincidence that whether cloud went, a couple of SOLDIER thirds were near enough in his general vicinity. Now, this may be paranoia, after all this is the HQ for shinra. But, what stopped cloud from belittling himself, was that it was the EXACT same two thirds from his prior walkabout in the building. Now, if sephiroth were here he would demand to know why his men are harassing his lover. The only thing that was stopping cloud from calling the general however, was that these two weren't SOLDIER perse, they're uniform was, but on the harness around their waist had a different symbol on it. 

And as soon as his patience wore thin,cloud was about to swing at the pair before he was put in a crude but nevertheless effective headlock and immediately his partner had plunged - and not too gently either, a syringe full of most likely a tranquilliser into his arm. 

And soon enough, everything went black… 

 

One blink, two blink, three. And finally cloud eyes became clear. 

He was on a metal slab, hands and ankles both shackled to the table and an IV in his arm. Something was wrong here, and he didn't need to be conscious to know that… 

“Ahh, so my prize possessions pet has awoken. Has he?”

'I know that voice’.  
And immediately, cloud's worst fears came to life. There standing by his feet with his hands in his pockets was hojo himself. 

“Now then, there's no need to glare at me boy. You are insignificant to me. However, i noticed something was going on with sephiroth and i have easily surmised that you are the cause of it. You're C.O., major garren i believe, has been informed that you were given a task to do with the turks. You, won't be missed.”

 

Cloud could only glare more when hojo proceeded to bring out his equipment and one look at the scalpel laying on the table? And cloud knows he's in trouble. 

'Help me. Somebody, anybody. Please…’

 

Sighing heavily at the mountain of paperwork on his desk, because really, that's exactly what it is, sephiroth raised a hand to his forehead and just as he was about to ease away the tension there, a searing heat fell upon him and immediately he stood and walked away. 

Ignoring the concern questions from angeal and genesis and headed straight to the labs. 

He didn't know why he was going, he was trying to stop himself. But it was no use, his body had a mind of its own and he was there for the journey.. 

 

Long gone was cloud's composure. He was screaming, kicking - or at least, bucking himself up on the table and cursing every crude word he knew at the man and nothing seemed to faze hojo. 

Cloud had a ten centimetre slash in each arm, he was aware that the cut was deep to show his tendons and muscles underneath but not too deep that he couldn't flex his hands. It hurts - a lot. 

And just as he was about to start up all over again - HE had arrived and cloud thought he was saved. 

“Sephiroth!! Help me. Please!!”

But sephiroth didn't even look at him, he just turned to hojo and spoke. And immediately, when cloud heard his voice, he knew - sephiroth wasn't 'there’.

 

“You called for me. Mother?”

'Mother?’ Oh god…. Seph, please don't..’

Cloud was internally screaming at the man to wake up but it was no use, sephiroth merely nodded at whatever hojo had said to him and then immediately, cloud was released from the table by sephiroth - and was kneed full force in his gut before he was held up by the scruff of his shirt and slammed back onto the cold slab again. 

Grunting from both hits, cloud opened his eyes to see the emptiness in sephiroth's own. 

His eyes barely had pupils in them. His eyes looked closed off, void of any recognition in them and immediately cloud knew. 

Whatever happens from here on out - sephiroth won't care, wouldn't even remember. 

Because, sephiroth isn't even 'here’

 

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life and death are always in someone else's hands... Until you decide to rebel against it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> Here's the first chapter for February!!!  
> Is it me or has January gone by so quickly?!?!  
> Anywho, the second chapter for today will be up later on, just working out some kinks in it.   
> Enjoy and comments of any kind are always welcome.   
> :)

Of voices that aren't known part 13 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

He didn't know how long he was held down but cloud knew that he was going to have a very, very large bruise all over his back. Sephiroth had picked him up and slammed him against the metal slab four times more after the initial one. 

Sephiroth after the fifth slam, slowly began to regain his senses and immediately he was horrified. 

Cloud was loosely holding on to his wrist, blood pouring down to his hands from the still open incisions in his arms. His eyes were half lidded and tears were falling down his face, combined with the sweat on his brow. 

“Cloud. No… what have i done? I'll heal you.”

“You will do no such thing my boy.”

And before sephiroth could even raise his sword to hojo's throat, a haze was wrapping itself around him and he immediately fell to his knees. 

With a smirk on his face, hojo turned to see a worried frown settled on cloud's face at not his own situation - but for sephiroth. At the moment, it's all he can do, his throat is too sore to speak with. 

“I would never hurt my pride and joy. This is a materia i created. It combines sleep and confusion. It also allows an outside manipulation to occur.”

Cloud knew what hojo meant, even before hojo had knelt down and whispered into his ear. 

“Sephiroth. Go back to work. Do the rest of the paperwork and inform the other's that commander strife will be on duty for a few more days .”

 

Cloud watched in sheer agony as sephiroth slowly got up and left - as if he didn't use cloud as a punching bag. All too soon reality hit him. 

No-one would disagree with whatever sephiroth would tell them. 

Cloud was in the hands of hojo and nobody would be the wiser of it. 

And leaning over cloud's body with a fresh scalpel in hand and a dark smile on his face? Cloud knows that hojo is aware of that too.

 

“Hey zack. Did you know that cloud was away on a mission?”

“Yeah, reno sent me a message. Apparently, the science department wanted an escort and cloud was selected.”

“Hmm.”

“Why? What is it kunsel?”

Frowning, kunsel pulled zack into a spare training room and relayed what he heard. 

“I saw reno earlier. I asked him about it and he claimed that he didn't send you or any of us a message of any kind. I asked him to check on the mission status and he said he'll get back to me soon. Zack? This reeks of hojo.”

Zack was not happy with that. Not happy at all and kunsel immediately picked up on it. 

“Hey!!! Listen i get it, i do. But, you can't go charging in without a solid piece of evidence about this zack!! I know that you care about cloud, a lot. I know how much he means to you, we all care about him. I also know that you would throw away your career for him but think about it for a second - your CAREER is the only thing that can save cloud. If he's in trouble. Ok? Trust me and reno, we'll get the facts and then we'll alert the others.”

 

Sighing heavily but in understanding, zack slumped against the wall and allowed kunsel to grip his shoulder and waited for him to get his Bearings.

He just hoped that while their idly twiddling their thumbs, cloud really has gone on a mission. 

 

“AHHHHH!!.....”  
“That's it lad. Let me hear your screams.”

Hojo was having fun at cloud's expense. 

It's been two hours since sephiroth had left and cloud was barely holding on. 

Not just satisfied with opening up his arms to reveal his tendons and muscles, hojo had begun to seal the wounds up with concentrated mako - directly onto the wound itself. 

And hojo was pleased with the response he was getting from the man. 

“The materia i used on sephiroth was mastered. Even if it wears off, the effects would've been immediate. Now then, let's tell you about 'mother’. Shall i?”

It was a rhetorical question, as no sooner had hojo asked the sobbing man on his work table about it, he has already gone into the story. 

“Her name is jenova. She's an ancient of legend. Her influence is unavoidable and yet - it only occurred in sephiroth and to my disgust - you also. It's a resonance of such. She's afterall, in your hometown.”

At the mention of nibelheim, cloud looked up at his tormentor who merely smirked darkly and carried on as if he wasn't slowly burning cloud and resulted in him screaming away. 

“I thought it might occur though. You are merely a man, whilst sephiroth is a god among the SOLDIERS. I surmised that if he meet a true nibel child, sephiroth would be able to connect with jenova. I however, didn't think of the opposite should happen too. A mere human as yourself should never have connected to jenova. Period. I believe that she'll end your days. And sephiroth shall be her sword and shield to do so.”

And with that, hojo placed the syringe with mako down and walked away. 

Cloud knew that he was going to die, knew it immediately after jenova - as he was now informed of the woman's voice name would be his demise. It just didn't dawn on him that it would be sephiroth who would do so. 

Cloud can take it, the pain, the condescending remarks hojo throws at him - but dying by sephiroth's hand? No, something had to be done. Cloud wouldn't mind dying, if only to keep sephiroth alive and sane. From what cloud had learned - if he were to die, then jenova and whatever else hojo had already done to sephiroth would be null and void. 

Ignoring the searing pain in both his arms and across his back, cloud bucked up, twisted his body and with shaky fingers, grabbed hold of the scalpel laying on his side and deftly plunged it straight into his stomach…. 

 

The last thing he saw was an amused look on hojo's face as death claimed him…. 

 

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was war...it doesn't matter whatever side you are on, blood will be spilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> And here's the second chapter for today, it follows the one previous from it. The next update hopefully will be tomorrow but i'm working, but if i can, i'll get one up either way, this will continue.   
> Enjoy and see you all tomorrow - hopefully   
> ;)

Of voices that aren't known part 14 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.  
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

Sephiroth felt it.   
He felt a life ending blow being inflicted on someone. He just didn't know who or how. 

He has an uneasy feeling settling over his mind as well. He couldn't recall coming here and what's more - he doesn't know why he has faded red scratch marks on his wrist.   
A hard knock on his door however brought sephiroth out of his musings. 

“Enter.”

Upon hearing permission, both angeal and genesis both entered sephiroth's huge office and judging by the deep frowns on both their faces? Sephiroth knew something was wrong. 

“Angeal? Genesis? What is it?”

“Cloud's missing.”

Immediately hearing that, sephiroth gestured to the pair to take a seat and begin from the beginning. 

“Reno sent a message to zack saying the science department needed an escort and cloud was selected for it. But kunsel had asked about it and reno has claimed that he sent no such thing. Doesn't it seem odd?”

Nodding in agreement to genesis's words, sephiroth calmly placed his pen down, interlocked his fingers and rested his chin on top of them. With a calculates stare to show how he became general, sephiroth responded. 

“That does sound suspicious. However, i was also informed that cloud was away and would be for some time. It's probably alright. Although, it does seem weird that reno has no recollection of sending anything to zack. Give it a day or two and if nothing happens in that period of time? I'll see what i can do. However, i'm in charge of SOLDIER, not the army so my hands are tied in that respect.”

At that angeal actually scoffed openly, which caused sephiroth and genesis to both glance at him in questioning. 

“I know zack. Known him for many years, long before we even dated. He wouldn't kick up a fuss unless he was ABSOLUTELY sure it was necessary. Both he and reno can behave like a bunch of children - i’ll gladly admit that freely. But, i know those two and they take what they do very seriously. This isn't right sephiroth. If anything, trust zack, we all know how much cloud means to him and to us.”

 

Before sephiroth could even agree to that statement, a dull ache has hit his stomach and immediately sephiroth dropped to his knees. 

“SEPHIROTH?!?!”

Immediately, angeal went to lock the office door whilst genesis went to check on their leader. 

“Sephiroth?!?! What happened?!?! Are you alright?!”

'Something's wrong. Cloud..’

Glancing sideways to angeal, genesis could see the worry in his eyes also. And as angeal wrapped an arm around sephiroth to help him up, genesis pulled the chair away and was about to speak up when sephiroth jumped in. 

“Cloud...Cloud's dead.”

Blanching at his words, angeal immediately grabbed sephiroth's none too gently and shook him. 

“That's not funny. Why the hell would you say that?”

Angeal was pissed and rightfully so but genesis? He could see the pain and anger in sephiroth's eyes and decided for once, to be the calm one here. 

“Sephiroth? How can you be sure that he… that cloud's dead?”

“I. I felt as if i was the one who was being killed earlier and then there is this.”

Pulling away slightly, sephiroth pulled off his signature black coat off, and with a standard SOLDIER top on underneath, he showed the pair the faded scratches on his arms. 

“I don't know how i got these. But, i have a gap of two hours in my head upon arriving here. I think that cloud gave me these. I just don't know how or when.”

Grabbing sephiroth's wrist, angeal cast a sense spell over it and immediately froze. 

“There cloud's finger marks alright. That means he's here.”

Hearing that, genesis gently put sephiroth's coat back on the man and headed out with only one command. 

“We're getting cloud back.”

And for once, the other two didn't argue with that. 

 

“Now now commander. Let's not end this just yet.”

It felt as if he touched a live wire and every synapses of his body was ravaged by electricity. 

 

Blue eyes gained recognition and he knew what had happened. 

“Amazing what phoenix downs can do. Although i got to admit, i didn't think that you had what it takes to kill yourself so easily without a second thought. You my dear boy, have piqued my interest.”

 

At that was NEVER a good thing. 

Cloud could still feel the magic coursing through his veins, knew that hojo wasn't going to allow this to happen again. 

“Now then, what were you hoping to accomplish by dying here? Was it that you thought that this may stop sephiroth from doing so instead? Do you really think that you have such a hold on the man? Foolish boy!!! Angeal and genesis? Most likely, even that young man fair could sway him - but you? Don't make me laugh!! You are merely a man who he finds interesting. You pale in comparison to the other three, even i have to admit that hollander produced specimens worthy of sephiroth's attention. You my lad? Are nothing but entrainment for him. He always finds strange things amusing. However, i think you are under the impression that you have control here, unfortunately you, have none.”

And with cloud's hand gun in hand, hojo fired straight into his gut. 

And slowly, cloud bled out right in front of him…. 

 

'Cloud…..’

Immediately a hand flew straight to his gut and angeal stopped them before he spoke. 

“Sephiroth? What is it?”  
“Cloud's been resurrected.”

Smiling at his statement, angeal was about to thank the heavens when genesis rain on his parade. 

“Seph? What else are you not telling us?”

Gripping at his coat, sephiroth turned to genesis and spoke softly. 

“Hojo.”

That was all that was needed. They knew all about the mad man's kink of making people and animals alike to suffer, bringing them back and doing it all over again to the point of the poor victims losing their sanity - and only then did hojo put them out of their misery. 

“Angeal!!! Hey, you found sephiroth. What happened?”

Nodding in confirmation to zack, angeal was about to fill him in on. the situation when mack appeared with reno. 

“General, we know hojo's got cloud.”

“How do you for sure?”

“We found two SOLDIERS that aren't of our main regiment. Let's just say that reno is very skilled with his EMP rod.”

Looking for confirmation from reno and seeing it, sephiroth pushed himself and walked with a mission burning in his eyes. 

There was going to be a massacre.   
Unfortunately, hojo and the morons who blindly follow him had no idea it was about to happen…. 

TBC


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'come to me and let me hold you' death asked and life responded in kind.   
> 'i would allow it, if your arms weren't so cold and i could leave you whenever i wanted'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!! We're nearing the end here!!!!  
> :(  
> Thank you very much for your comments and kudos this has gained, it means the world to me!! Here are two more chapters today and the next update hopefully will be tomorrow. 
> 
> Enjoy and comments of any kind are always welcome   
> :)

Of voices that aren't known part 15 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

It didn't take long for the five SOLDIERS and reno to get to the lab and what they heard froze them in their place. 

 

Cloud was screaming - and screaming hard and loud. 

“Hojo's going to pay.”

Was the growled out warning from sephiroth before he charged in without a plan in place, leaving behind the other four who had to deal with the SOLDIERS that mack had told them about. 

With their respective swords drawn, and the EMP rod for reno, the five got ready for battle. 

 

“Ahh sephiroth my boy. So glad you're here.”

Sephiroth wasn't paying the man any attention however. All he could see was a heavily breathing, blood soaked, crying cloud laying unbounded on the metal slab. 

“What have you done to him?”

“Hmm? Ah yes, commander strife here is finally in tune with 'mother’. Here, allow me to show you.”

And with a whisper into cloud's ear, hojo stood up and watched as cloud's eyes changed colour from blue to green and immediately cloud drew his swords that were lying on the tray beside him and charged at sephiroth. 

Summoning masamune, sephiroth was surprised at the sheer power that was coming from cloud - he was going to demand an explanation for this from hojo when sephiroth noticed something deadly wrong with cloud. 

Restraining himself, sephiroth grabbed hold of cloud's hands, turned him around himself and kicked him backwards which caused him to land straight into the metal table which caused it to buckle under his weight. 

“How many times have you killed cloud?”

Laughing full blown, hojo merely answered his question by counting it out with his fingers. 

'four’.

 

That's too much. Everything that had happened to cloud was brought back with him every time he was returned to the world of the living - and everytime it Happened? Cloud loses a bit of his sanity. 

Sephiroth barely had time to dodge one of cloud's knives that he had thrown. One thing about cloud, he had amazing aim - he hardly missed. 

Something else sephiroth noticed, he could hear cloud's heartbeat. It was dangerously slow. 

'This needs to end.’

And sephiroth only knew of one way to do so. 

Raising his masamune high, sephiroth closed his eyes and waited for cloud to jump up and then he rammed it home… 

'Forgive me. Cloud….’

 

This is ridiculous!! They keep coming!!”

And zack was right. These men were getting cut to ribbons but they kept going.   
“Enough of this? Genesis!!”

Nodding grimly at angeal's command, genesis cast his mastered fire materia and all that was heard was the SOLDIERS scream and flesh being burnt. 

Once all that was left was ashes, mack turned to see the entry of hojo's lab. 

“Let's go. Sephiroth can't kill hojo, despite his actions.”

Nodding in understanding, the five ran in and immediately their blood ran cold. 

Sephiroth was holding masamune at an angle in the air, one handed - however that wasn't the main concern. 

In the air, between the blade was cloud. 

He had masamune's blade in the center of his chest and immediately zack screamed…. 

 

“CLOUD!!!!!!!!!”

 

Sephiroth paid zack no mind, or the others for that matter. He immediately lowered his sword and instantly pulled cloud into his arms. Gently pulling the blade out, sephiroth placed the sword by his side, cupped cloud's face and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead before he spoke against his skin. Pleased to see his eyes returning back to blue again. 

 

“Forgive me cloud. I didn't know any other way to help you.”

Swallowing hard, sephiroth glanced at angeal and whispered. 

“Angeal? Heal cloud. Be careful though, he's been resurrected four times.”

Frowning deeply, angeal approached with a clear head and softly took cloud away from sephiroth's arms and murmured to him. 

“What about you?”

“I'm ending hojo.”

And with an air of finality, sephiroth picked up his sword and headed to the hole hojo has locked himself in. 

“Angeal. We need to stop sephiroth. He can't kill hojo. He'll be executed for it.”

Looking down at the near dead man in his arms, angeal brushed away blood and sweat soaked blond hair and spoke up. 

“Major. Can you and reno stop him?”

Nodding in agreement, the pair left, leaving genesis and zack took sit down beside angeal and wait. 

“Angeal? Is cloud… Is he gone?”

Looking at zack, angeal felt his heart drop at what he saw. 

He loved them all dearly, but he was incredibly fond of zack and seeing his youthful face scrunched up in sorrow with tears falling freely, angeal wrapped a hand around one of zack's and spoke. 

“Not yet. But he has been killed before. Genesis? You have more experience with materia, you need to heal cloud. But, you know the risk.”

Nodding in agreement, genesis carefully and calmly pulled cloud into his own arms despite his own tears, placed him down on the floor and began to slowly, painfully even - heal the stab wound. 

“Why are you taking your time gen?”

There wasn't any malice in zack's words, just pain. 

“Doing so abruptly would damage cloud's psyche irreversibly. He has been killed and revived from what i can sense four times, this may be too much for cloud. If i can't do this.. Zack? I may have to let cloud go.”

Immediately hearing that, zack was about to demand an explanation for his explanation when they all heard the moment hojo was being cut down by sephiroth. 

 

Cloud may not be the only one to die here… 

Two more may join him…. 

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "To what do i owe the pleasure of your company?'  
> Solitude asked and death replied.  
> 'because we have a lot in common.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.  
> Here is the next chapter for today. It follows the one previous from it.  
> :)

Of voices that aren't known part 16 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.  
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

Pained, blue eyes opened up and immediately, a head of spiky, black hair came into view. 

“Hey cloud. We're here. We're here and you're safe. We're gonna get you outta here.”

Hearing that didn't help at all and cloud immediately went into a seizure. Genesis and angeal carefully braced his head and legs respectively and eased cloud back. 

“Zack. Go easy now. No sudden shocks. Ok?”

All zack could muster was a shaky nod to angeal's question as genesis carried on healing cloud. 

All that filled the din was the screams of hojo and metal clanging. 

“Do you think that garren and reno can calm sephiroth down?”

“We'll see. How's cloud doing genesis?”

Sighing heavily, genesis was about to answer angeal's question when cloud began to speak up. 

“I'm. I'm here, right?”

Smiling softly, genesis stroked back his hair and spoke softly through his still falling tears. 

“Yes sweetheart, you're here. Do you want to Live?”

Hearing that, zack was about to tear into genesis before he remembered what he was told and had learnt about resurrection. A mind can take only so much before it snaps - especially if the mind has suffered greatly. 

Sobbing softly, cloud merely nodded in confirmation and genesis bent down and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead before cloud spoke up again. 

“My hands, i can't feel them. Hojo, he cut them open.”

Hearing that, angeal and genesis both made a noise of anger and hurt at the state of his arms and immediately angeal began to heal the damage that was done. 

“Will that work angeal?”

“I don't know puppy. I don't think hojo cut through his nerves, we'll know more when cloud begins rehabilitation for what was done to him. For now, let's get cloud back to normal health and sephiroth away from here. I'll go and help mack. Zack? Stay here and guard genesis, i doubt that anything will attack us but it's better to be safe than sorry. Contact tseng as well.”

And with a nod of confirmation from zack, angeal gave him a firm but nevertheless gentle grip to his shoulder, gave cloud a kiss to his temple and turned to give genesis the same treatment before heading in. 

“Cloud. Cloud will be alright, won't he genesis?”

Looking down at the man's head that was in his lap, genesis smiled softly at the sleeping young man and spoke up, all the while still healing the damage to his chest, predominantly the stab wound and arms respectively. 

“He'll survive. As to his state of mind? We'll cross that bridge when we get there. I'm sorry zack, but that's all i can offer.”

And zack took it, all of it and cocooned it safely and securely inside his heart and mind. 

 

“I won't ask nicely again hojo. Where is She?!?!”

 

Sephiroth had did a number on the place. There wasn't a single piece of equipment that hadn't been destroyed and the man himself was cut rather nicely too. 

“You stupid boy! How dare you. And you there, don't just stand there and watch!! Stop him. 

Major garren merely shrugged his shoulders and spoke. 

“I'm under no obligation to do so sir. However, tell general sephiroth what he wants to know and we will guarantee your survival. However, i must admit i want you to suffer for what you did to my boy.”

Glaring at garren, hojo merely gestured to his notepad and reno went to retrieve it. 

“You will die here. After everything you have done - hurting one of my objects of my love was the dumbest thing a smart man like yourself could do. Goodbye, hojo.”

And before sephiroth could deal the finishing blow, mack gently pulled his arm down and spoke to him. 

“I want him dead as well. I love cloud as if he were my son. But killing this man would only serve to kill you and furthermore - harm cloud even more. You know how i feel about that, so please, don't do this?”

Sephiroth was about to shove the man away when angeal stepped forward and whispered into his ear. 

“Cloud's alive. Sephiroth? Don't.”

And with a nod, sephiroth swung his blade and it landed straight into hojo's leg. 

“Be grateful that is all you are receiving from me.” Pulling the blade out non too gently sephiroth took his notepad away from reno, gave it a once over before handing it back, he then ordered the turk and mack to watch over hojo as he and angeal went back to cloud. 

 

It was a shock, but that was to be expected. 

Cloud was now in the protective arms of genesis, his head tucked beneath his chin, with genesis sitting on his calves with cloud's own draped over them, he didn't look as if he was killed in amusement by hojo. 

“Is he still with us?”

“Sadly yes. I wished angeal and mack didn't stop me.”

Genesis couldn't help but smirk at the way sephiroth was - pouting about it. 

 

“Tseng will be here shortly. We must stay until he arrives.”

Nodding in understanding, sephiroth calmly sat down beside the pair and with pained eyes, tentatively stroked bloody, blonde hair away from cloud's face. 

Zack meanwhile was speaking to reno about what had occurred when he noticed the notepad and spoke up about it. 

“What's in your hand red?”

“Hojo's notes on sephiroth's supposed 'mother’. The woman is apparently from what i read so far, is situated in nibelheim.”

Nodding grimly at reno's words, zack was about to ask what the plan was now when cloud softly whispered into the air. 

“She's not human. Hojo, he said that she was an ancient of legend. He.. Hojo was having trouble with her..”

Seeing the effects of what hojo had already done to cloud, sephiroth cupped his face and softly spoke. 

“Cloud? Forgive me. I caused you so much pain. If you would allow me, i will use the rest of my day's making it up to you.”

Before cloud could respond, tseng appeared with men from garren's unit and surprisingly, hannah too. 

“Tseng told me what happened. I'm a doctor as you know. I'm going to be overseeing cloud's care.”

Smiling softly in gratitude, hannah reciprocated the gesture from the other's and immediately got to work on securing cloud's arms in bandages to strengthen his tendons whilst she gave mack some more to deal with cloud's ribs. 

It took twenty minutes but between the pair, cloud was bandaged up enough to stabilise his condition and immediately sephiroth cradled cloud's body to his own. 

Tseng, meaning had hojo escorted out in handcuffs and approached the group. 

“General sephiroth sir. We need to speak with lazard. This situation needs to be resolved.”

Nodding in agreement, sephiroth gently gave cloud back to genesis who merely pulled cloud's head beneath his chin and murmured to sephiroth. 

“We'll be going back to mine. Hannah? Will you be able to handle the rest of cloud's injuries at my place? I believe that cloud shouldn't go anywhere near a medical building just yet.”

“Of Course. Me and mack will need to make a pit stop at the hospital for me to gather a few bits and pieces to help.”

And with that settled, the group all disbanded to different locations to finally end this. 

 

It was a calm night when they headed back to the main tower, zack had left with reno claiming that they needed to let kunsel know that they got cloud back. With a order for zack to come over once he's done, genesis and angeal entered the elevator and waited for it's arrival. 

Once inside and the metal doors closed, angeal looked down at cloud's bare chest - save for the white bandages wrapped around his frame and spoke. 

“He'll need a bath to wash away his sweat and blood. I can smell the mako too.”

Genesis didn't say anything, he just exited the elevator, calmly marched to his front door, opened it, awaited till angeal was inside and kicked the door shut gently. 

Sitting down with cloud still in his lap, genesis began to carefully remove his boots, harness and his trousers, keeping his boxers on whilst angeal placed cloud's swords and knives down on the coffee table. 

Genesis and angeal then took this moment to really analyse what was inflicted on cloud. 

His hands were caked in dry and fresh blood, his chest had burns from where hojo had used four phoenix downs. His chest also had the remnant scar of when sephiroth impaled him with his masamune, as well as another, shallow but nevertheless sharp blade had entered rather viciously in his lower stomach, from the angle, most likely cloud had did this . And his hair was highlighted rusty red from his blood 

Sighing heavily in what cloud must have gone through, angeal made his way out to genesis's main bathroom to start it up for cloud, whilst the man in question had opened his eyes and looked up to see red and green ones staring back. 

“My sweetheart. You have my word that nothing like this will ever happen again to you.”

And all cloud did was sob as genesis cradled the back of his head and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead, all the while murmuring his promise to him over and over again. 

Angeal had returned and gave them a warm smile and softly spoke. 

“Cloud, the bath is ready. It'll do you some good to relax in the hot water for a while.”

Cloud knew what angeal had said was true, but he couldn't face going into or even on another piece of metal. The mere thought of it touching his skin made him feel sick and genesis immediately picked up on it. 

“Sweetheart. We're not hojo. We would never lay a finger on you in that way. Would you like me to come in with you?”

Immediately, cloud nodded in confirmation and genesis bent down, picked him up bridal style and carefully made his way over to the bathroom. Once inside, genesis gave cloud over to angeal, who in turn sat down on the closed lid of the toilet and rocked him back and forth as genesis was getting out of his clothes and grabbing very big towels for the pair. 

Coming back into the now steamy room with a towel wrapped around his waist, genesis pulled the fabric away, settled in the tub and held out his arms open as angeal carefully placed his now fully naked package into genesis's wet arms. Cloud immediately went rigid as his toes touched the side panels of the bathtub and genesis pulled cloud's head beneath his chin and with water in his hands, gently created waves in the water and softly abolished his fears. 

“You're alright sweetheart. It's just me, you, angeal and this lovely warm bath we're in. Close your eyes for me, feel my chest rise and fall and let it go.”

And cloud did, he turned around slowly to avoid jarring his arms and chest, curled up against genesis and sobbed away until he was too tired to carry on. 

And all the while, angeal began to slowly wash cloud's hair whilst genesis cleaned up clouds hands and fingernails. 

 

It took a while but cloud was washed and dressed in a pair of his boxers and one of genesis's dress shirts that completely swamped his figure. He had pyjamas here but they felt constricted against him and genesis understood that and gave him one of his shirts instead - Needless to say when cloud came out in it with a blanket around his shoulders and genesis's arm around his shoulders to hold it in place, angeal smiled warmly and in amusement at the sight. 

Cloud really did look adorable. 

 

The others will be arriving later but for now, these two will rejoice in the knowledge that cloud has been returned to them. 

Although not in the way they wanted, but all the same, he's back where he belongs. 

In the end, that's all that matters.  
They can deal with the fallout when it comes. 

TBC


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'Life asks of time  
> 'To what ails you?'  
> And time merely turned away. For time never stands still....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, i'm back!!!
> 
> It's been a crazy few days so i apologise for not updating sooner, i think that from here on out i may only upload a chapter a day and then when it comes to the last two, they will be up simultaneously. Please bare with me and know that this will get finished, that i can say for sure.   
> Thanks again for checking this out and here's a new chapter for you all!!  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 17 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“General, are you alright?”

“I've been better director. No offence but can we deal with this quickly? Commander strife is in a bad way and needs all the support he can get now.”

“Of Course.”

Sephiroth and tseng had arrived at lazard's office thirty minutes after the fiasco had occurred at hojo's lab. 

 

“So, professor hojo had done illegal experimentations on commander strife and had kill the man. Is that Correct?”

“Yes sir. Commander strife was declared clinically dead and was resurrected four times by hojo. He also suffered severe arm trauma, at the present moment, we are yet to see if his nerves are still in healthy condition. I recommend that if there is significant amount of damage, that commander strife is allowed to maintain his rank and take on the position of training officer. That is, if the injuries can't be repaired.”

 

“Agreed, however. Professor hojo has strong connections to our president so we can't really do anything about what had happened to commander strife. However, hojo will pay for the physical and emotional damage he has caused upon the commander and as such, we will remove him from the science department until we can verify his connection to this ‘ancient’ of his. General sephiroth, take a few days off and see to it that commander strife is well enough to carry on with his duties.”

 

“So, hojo gets away with what he's done?”

“For now general. Tseng, reno and major garren will be heading to nibelheim and take evidence of hojo's misguided actions. But unfortunately, he's essential to SOLDIER and it's programme. I'm truly sorry.”

“With all due respect director, that apology won't help cloud get over being killed repetitively, nor will it heal him.”

 

Without waiting for a response, sephiroth walked away from the office and headed to genesis's place. He had a promise to fulfil and bad news to share. 

 

“Hey guy's, i'm back with kunsel.”

“We're in the living room.”

 

Entering the room mentioned, zack immediately felt his stomach drop at what he saw. 

Lying on the couch with genesis's shirt on and a blanket over his waist and legs, cloud looked ill. His hands were wrapped tightly in bandages and were slightly curled up against his head, he looked as if he went through the wars. And truth be told? In a broad sense, he did. 

 

“Damn, is he going to be alright sir?”

Was the only timid question that kunsel could ask. Zack had vacated his spot beside the man to kneel in front of cloud's head. Smiling softly, angeal tried to ease their respective worries. 

“In time, yes. However, cloud will have to deal with his deaths and the subsequent ways in which he was killed by hojo. Physically? It's hard to say for sure. The tendons and muscles in his arms were torn open and were also exposed to unrefined mako. He'll have to do physiotherapy to see if he still has sensation in them. Either way, cloud will have a lot to deal with.”

 

“But he won't be dealing with this alone. I'll make sure of that.” was zack's determined answer to angeal's statement, and angeal couldn't be more proud of the man or agree more to his statement. 

The door opened and in came sephiroth along with mack and hannah and immediately she got to work. 

Sephiroth meanwhile, had a look of murder and angeal could sense it, and just as he was about to ask what was wrong, sephiroth dropped a bombshell on them all. 

 

“Hojo won't be charged for what he's  
done to cloud.”

 

Everything froze at the moment. Now one could even comprehend what sephiroth had said. In that simple statement of his, it seemed as if the whole world had dropped off its axis and they were the only one's that could see it too. 

However, it was genesis who spoke up first, but mindful of the fragile man in his arms. 

 

“So, while cloud has to relive the horrors that was inflicted on him, hojo gets to walk away as if he didn't lay a finger on him. Is that about it?”

Without saying anything else, sephiroth calmly stood between zack's crouched down form and hannah and spoke softly. 

“Mrs garren. How is cloud?”

Carefully unwrapping the binds over cloud's wrist and fingers, hannah frowned and spoke. 

“Not good. His fingers are cold, a clear sign of lack of circulation in them. They have blood flowing through them but until cloud uses them? I can't say for certain if the damage is permanent. I need to wake him, i know that he needs to sleep, i do but? He's breathing is laboured which is a symptom of respiratory problems. Most likely, broken ribs.”

Nodding in understanding, genesis gently put a hand through cloud's hair and spoke softly into his ear. 

“Sweetheart. Hannah's here and she would like to see you and those beautiful blue eyes of yours.”

Slowly, blue eyes opened up and immediately a small smile erupted on cloud's face. 

“Hey hannah.”

Smiling softly, hannah cupped his face, placing a kiss to his forehead before speaking again. 

“Hey to you too cloud. Can i check on your ribs? Will that be alright?”

Sitting up slowly with help from zack and genesis, cloud used shaky fingers to undo the shirt he was wearing, zack was about to help out when genesis gave him a gentle shake of his head to stop him. 

Zack of course understood the reason and sat down beside genesis on the couch and patiently waited for cloud to do so. 

Having undone the last button, cloud was surprised to see looks of pride on everyone else's faces and was about to ask why when hannah explained it first. 

“Well, that answers that question. It seems to me that cloud's nerves haven't been damaged, if anything i think that they just need to be rebuilt and i will be able to help with that.”

A small but nevertheless there smile covered cloud's face and genesis wrapped an arm around his shoulders and placed a lingering kiss to his temple over and over again whilst hannah examined his ribs. 

Angeal had realised that sephiroth didn't answer genesis's question about hojo and was about to speak up when sephiroth jumped in first. 

 

“Major garren and the turks will be going to nibelheim to verify the existence of jenova, once any and all evidence of hojo's wrongdoing is confirmed? Only then can we deal with him. Cloud? I'm sorry.”

Nodding that he heard what was said, cloud turned his attention back to hannah and immediately frowned at the real size of the bruises that sephiroth gave him. 

And he wasn't the only one who saw them, each of the people in the room and various levels of wincing on their faces but cloud was the one to stop the immediate concern that was about to drown him. 

“It only looks bad because i did technically die, four times in fact. To be honest, i don't think that rigor mortis had even set in when hojo brought me back again…”

At that moment, mack's phone had decided to go off signalling his ride to nibelheim. Glancing at cloud, he saw the pain in his eyes and decided to do something about it. Squatting between cloud's legs, mack pulled him into his arms gently and spoke softly. 

“I'm going to be back in a week's time. The minute i return, i'll come straight over. Ok?”

“Ok. Be careful sir.”

Smiling at cloud's concern for other's despite his own trauma, mack cupped cloud's face and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead then his cheek before kissing hannah goodbye and saluting to the others. And with goodbyes all round, the only sound that remained was the front door being shut and cloud's world falling apart right in front of them. 

 

TBC


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light ask of darkness.   
> 'why are so dark? Especially when i touch you?'  
> Darkness replies 
> 
> 'there is no light without shadow'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> Sorry for the long update, me and my phone had a disagreement of sorts, but it's all good now!!!  
> The next update will be on Sunday, i'm out with the family tomorrow.   
> Thanks again for your comments and kudos for this.   
> So, without further ado, here is the next chapter.   
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 18 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“Cloud? May i come in?”

“Yeah, you know you don't have to ask me. I'm not afraid of you.”

 

This routine has been going on for the past four days. Sephiroth would knock on cloud's bedroom door seeking permission and cloud would say each and every time that he didn't need to. 

Cloud couldn't fault sephiroth though.  
He like cloud, was put through the ringer by hojo and was used to beat the crap out of cloud. That in itself had frightened sephiroth, knowing that he could've killed cloud and wouldn't of been any the wiser about it. 

Sighing heavily, sephiroth sat down beside cloud, gingerly ran his fingers through his blond hair and spoke. 

“How are you feeling today?”

Smiling in relief that sephiroth isn't as timid to touch him like before, cloud pulled himself up into a sitting position, round his arms around sephiroth's chest and leaned his head against his heartbeat and responded to his question. 

“Tired, sore and bored outta my mind here.”

Smiling for once in sheer relief, sephiroth carefully picked cloud up so that he was sitting on his lap instead of leaning against his side. Once they had got settled, sephiroth entwined their fingers together and began to massage his hands, all the while murmuring into his ear. 

“You still have sensation in them cloud. That's a good thing and Mrs garren can work with that instead of starting from scratch. I need to ask you a question, one of which i'm not sure you want to answer.”

Relaxing his head back against sephiroth's shoulder, cloud hummed in approval for sephiroth to carry on with his line of thought, and so sephiroth did. 

“I know that you are aware that hojo will not be charged for what he's done to you. And that he is vital to SOLDIER and it's programme and as such the president won't give him away so easily. Cloud? Will you be staying in the army? Or are you willing to make a clean break from all of this?”

Cloud shifted a little bit but not in an uncomfortable way and spoke softly. 

“I don't know yet. I love you all so much and i love what i do. But, i think i need to take some time off, just for a little while. If that's okay, that is?”

Nodding in understanding, sephiroth carried on massaging his hands when the front door opened and in came zack and hannah. 

“Yo!!! Baby cloud!! Me and the old man's wife is here!!!”

That caused sephiroth to sigh in feigned annoyance and cloud to laugh at his behaviour. Sephiroth gathered up the blanket and cloud, carried him bridal style out to the living room and greeted the pair. 

“Good morning zack, Mrs garren. Zack? You have to learn how to greet people properly. You can't just bellow like that whenever you please.”

Snorting at sephiroth and his words, zack gently pulled cloud into his own arms and proceeded to spin the pair around until cloud began laughing hard and complain to zack to put him down and all the while, hannah watched on laughing herself and began to unpack her medical equipment that was needed for today's session. 

Once her weight lifting bells were on the couch as well as more muscle support bandages were unpackaged, hannah began to check on cloud's wrist while zack and sephiroth had went to the kitchen to prepare the pair in the living room breakfast and to speak about cloud's situation. 

“Has cloud said anything about what he wants to do once he's recovered?”

“I did ask him and he said that he loves what he does but understandably he wants to take some time off. Lazard has assured me that whatever cloud decides to do, his rank will be maintained, after all cloud deserves it and has worked hard for it. In that light, that isn't a real problem here.”

 

Nodding subtlety in understanding, zack turned his attention back to cloud who was laughing away at whatever hannah was doing to him. 

“He's happy. I thought rather shamefully that cloud would be excluding himself from us. Afterall, he's been through so much, so much more than any of us ever have. I'm glad he's still the same cloud i know so well. Honestly? I don't know what to do if cloud couldn't handle all of this and gave up on living. I know how strong cloud is, i do, but i didn't expect him to just bounce back as if it never happened, even i can see that he's struggling to cope but he's getting better though.”

Sephiroth stood behind zack, carded his fingers through his hair and spoke softly to him. 

“He's doing well zack. Let us be content that for now cloud has decided to move forward a little. Whatever he wants, we'll support his decision one hundred percent.” Ending the conversation with a kiss to the back of his head, sephiroth gathered up the trays of food, picked up the jug of orange juice and headed back to the living room, leaving zack to gather the glasses and follow. 

 

“Your tendons are in a sense, string. Pulling them too tightly will result in the thread becoming unwoven and break. This exercise will strengthen the tendons and relax them simultaneously. For now, do eight repetitions and break for twenty minutes then repeat the process.”

Nodding in confirmation, cloud began to do so with the occasional wincing at the feeling of being ripped apart. 

'Ripped apart. Huh?’ was cloud's thought on hannah's statement. 

Immediately after lifting the bell up to his chest, cloud instantly felt as if he was pulled back to the time in hojo's 'care' and immediately dropped the bell to the ground which caused the trio to look up as cloud began to hyperventilate. And immediately, zack got up and placed cloud into his lap to calm him and alleviate his panic also. 

“Cloud!!! Easy baby, you're alright. Here, breath with me. Ok?”

“General sephiroth sir. My apologies, i didn't mean for cloud to crumble like that. I should've started off with something different.”

Smiling softly, sephiroth placed a hand on her shoulder, gave it a gentle squeeze before speaking. 

“It's alright Mrs garren. We knew of the possibility of cloud relapsing back to hojo and what was done to him. This is not your fault in any way.”

 

Nodding in understanding although still upset, hannah turned her attention back to cloud who had now just about got his breathing back to normal and spoke softly through his laboured breathing. 

 

“I'm sorry cloud, it wasn't my intention to distress you further than necessary.”

Smiling softly whilst zack wiped away his tears and sweat, cloud held out his hand which hannah instantly took into her own and whispered. 

“It's my fault hannah. I thought i was fine, that i could just push past this and deal. Turns out i’m weaker than i thought i was. I may have boosted myself up more than what was required of me.”

Zack was as usual, quick to gently abolish what cloud had said, or rather stated outright. 

“No baby. This is to be expected from you. You've been through so, so much and just preparing yourself to recover takes a lot outta you. But you are far from weak here cloud. Never say that again baby, it's simply not true.”

Ending his opinion with a gentle kiss to his temple and a gentle squeeze, zack pulled them more back into the couch and helped cloud eat his breakfast before it gotten too cold whilst hannah did the same. 

 

It took thirty minutes later, but cloud had managed to do the rest of hannah's exercises relatively well without much fuss. Sephiroth and zack had left shortly after they had breakfast, however, not without the promise to ring in to see how they were doing. 

 

However, it was when hannah had to start her duty at the hospital and had left cloud alone that the real pain kicked in. 

Even though cloud was adamant to hannah that she could go, that he would be alright, cloud began to feel as if the walls were closing in on him. 

 

And he didn't know what to do. 

He was going to call the others, but that would only serve to distract them and was an absolute ‘NO’ in SOLDIER. They must always keep their attention fixed solely on their mission, regardless of what they're actually doing. 

And that left cloud alone, afraid and guilty for allowing hojo to do this to him. 

 

And those were the perfect combination for paranoia to kick in. 

And with deadly consequences……. 

 

TBC


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moon looked at the stars and realised something.   
> They are both a constant and are always there, even if most of the time they are unseen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi.   
> I know, sorry for the late update, life gets in he way...   
> Anyway we're nearing the end here!!! I'm posting one chapter now and the final one will be up tomorrow.   
> Thanks again for all of your comments, kudos and more importantly? Your time to check this out.   
> Enjoy!!!  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 19 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

The walls were closing in on him all at once, cloud knew that this wasn't real. It didn't help though. 

 

Ever since hannah left, mack gave cloud a courtesy call saying that they had found evidence of jenova and that they would be returning from nibelheim in the next few days. And when mack disconnected the call, that's when the paranoia kicked in. 

Everything felt disconnected to cloud, the volume of the TV was too loud, even when the volume bar was barely above eleven. The hum of the refrigerator was driving him nuts and the lighting in the living room was far too bright. Cloud was positive that he was losing his mind, which only made it worse when genesis gave him a call. 

Cloud was relatively sure that the others were too busy to check on their youngest lover. Cloud let the phone ring continuously until genesis apparently gave up and that made cloud feel worse.   
Afterall, it was cloud's decision to ignore the call, so what right did he have to feel as if they'd abandoned him?

 

Cloud was so engrossed in his anger and hurt that he failed to notice genesis come in until the last minute when he picked up one of his hunter knifes and threw it the man. 

Genesis saw the knife coming and immediately ducked, he was fine - although that couldn't be said for the door frame. Genesis was about to ask what was wrong when he saw it for himself. 

Cloud's eyes were unfocused, he was perspiring heavily and his breathing was hard as if he had ran a marathon. 

Pulling the knife out of the wood, genesis placed it down on the coffee table and then calmly approached the man when cloud backed himself into a corner which instantly stopped genesis in his tracks. 

 

“Sweetheart? What is it? What's got you wired up?”

Cloud didn't feel like answering at all for one valid reason - he wasn't sure that genesis was actually there. He never heard him come in, granted that's how SOLDIERS are but never with him. No, they always, ALWAYS made their point to let cloud know when and where they are, and now to have genesis here when he didn't know about it? It scared the crap out of cloud. 

Genesis had seen the confusion in his eyes and on his face and could see the tension in his posture. This wasn't good, something had happened and genesis wasn't sure exactly what it was, for all tense of purposes, cloud was fine. Genesis guest that maybe cloud wasn't doing as well as they assumed he was. 

“Cloud? Talk to me? Sweetheart?...”

“You're not there. I know that. I know, so then why. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!?!?! WHY HOJO?!?!”

'Hojo. Well that explains a lot.’ Immediately upon having that thought and realising what was going on with cloud, genesis calmly took his coat off, placed both his coat and rapier on the couch and slowly began to get cloud back to his senses. 

“Sweetheart. Remember four months ago, when me and you were on the outskirts of the city and we were fired upon by monsters? When it turned out that we were in a nest of them? I took a poison attack from a monster that was aiming at you. While we were waiting for reinforcements, you stood on guard while the mako in my body and the antidote i took was working. You stood on guard for three hours until you were attacked again and again until you were hit with the monster's stinger and even as you fell to your knees you still held onto your swords until angeal and zack had arrived. Sweetheart? You saved me and no-one other than us five, lazard and mack know of this. Cloud? Hojo never knew of that mission. I'm here.”

 

Genesis could see cloud's resolve crumbling and immediately pulled the man into his arms. Cradling his head underneath his chin, genesis allowed the pair to collapse onto the floor knees first and allowed cloud to scream and cry in anger, in fear and most importantly? In relief. 

 

Cloud seemed so lost and yet at home here. Once cloud was calm enough, genesis picked him up bridal style, placed him down softly on his bed then from there, grabbed a washcloth, washed his face and laid down with cloud until he fell asleep in his arms. 

That was three hours ago and genesis now got a good understanding of what had occurred. 

It was silence and solitude that got to cloud, that triggered that episode. All of his sensory organs were brought back to the time he was held captive by hojo. 

Cloud went from no noise save for the lab equipment buzzing with electricity and mako running through it, to being around the the other four, mack and hannah to then being left alone. 

His synapses in his head are so over the place that you couldn't fault him for having a hysterical breakdown of sorts. 

Unlike cloud, when sephiroth came back from hojo's lab he liked the silence, the nothingness, if only to drown out his senses enough to decompress a little. But cloud was, is different. Yes, he had moments when he reverted back to his shy self, but he never pulled away from them, it anything he loved just to sit down in their arms and cuddle for as long as he could. 

 

The other's will be back in the next few hours, and mack will be touching base soon. Once everyone is here, genesis will a long talk about what really is going on with cloud. And this time, they won't be sugarcoating the conversation at all, this needs to be blunt and straight to the point. 

 

Six hours later when sephiroth, angeal and zack had showered, got into something more comfortable and eaten, genesis sat them all down and with mack on the phone on loudspeaker, genesis started his self-proclaimed meeting. 

“Cloud needs to get out of this building and interact with other things such as the wildlife and not the monster kind. His brain isn't adjusting to outside stimuli and that is a danger in of itself.”

Major garren took this moment to speak up. 

'So, what do you suggest? A vacation away from Shinra? You know as well as i do that shinra, hell even lazard won't allow all of you to take some time off together. Especially general sephiroth. I'm all for cloud to get better, but realistically speaking? That idea isn't feasible.’

 

They knew that mack had a valid point regarding this matter but the truth is, cloud is driving himself crazy staring at the same walls day in and day out. That in itself is a dangerous combination for someone who was held captive in a same size room and was repetitively killed and experimented on. Even now, they don't know if what hojo had done to cloud was permanent - not to mention they still don't know what exactly hojo had done, save for killing cloud and cutting his arms bare open. 

 

Zack, being the optimist that he has gave his two cents on the matter. 

“How about just going to the coast nearby? It's a few hours drive from base and if they really need us back it'll be easier to do so. Plus we have friends down there and wouldn't mind keeping an eye on cloud if we have to go back. What do you think? It isn't Costa del sol but it's still a nice place to stay.”

“For once puppy, you actually used that brain of yours.”

“Bite me genesis.”

And at their snarky remarks, all of them laughed and agreed that maybe this little unplanned trip may do them all good. 

After all, paradise may be fleeting, but that's what makes it enjoyable. 

 

TBC


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 'I seek the truth, although i may not like what i hear.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. I'm spoiling you all today, not only am updating this, i have even lengthened the story!!! Believe me, i was planning to end it on just twenty chapters, but my muse got the better of me and so here we are. I can promise though, i ain't adding things for the sake of doing so, i just simply wasn't happy with the supposedly last chapter and decided that i really couldn't tie up loose ends in one chapter. So, i'm adding more so that it can be done in a way that will explain everything without dragging on the plot unnecessarily and leaving things out that needed to be included. 
> 
> Thanks again for your comments, kudos and time. Please bare with this if you want. 
> 
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 20 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.  
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“So, why the beach first?”

“Well, i thought that puppies liked water.”

“That's funny gen. Really.”

“I know. I try.”

And that's how the five travelled, with snide remarks from genesis and zack whilst the other two SOLDIERS smirked in amusement, whilst cloud softly smiled. Because really, this should be expected. 

It actually wasn't that hard for the group to get vacation time at the exact same time. Hearing the idea from zack, lazard was laid back about it and as long as they kept their respective phones free and were available? He didn't have any problems with them going. And hopefully this time, there won't be any state of emergencies to handle. 

And so here they are, walking down the street with the smell of Sea Salt in the air and in the wind, it was pleasantly warm, no humidity as of yet. 

A hand through cloud's hair brought cloud himself out of his musings and looked up to see angeal looking at him with a gentle smile and softly spoke. 

“How are you doing cloud? Ok?”

“Yeah, it's nice here. What made you all decide to come here?”

Smiling softly, angeal wrapped an arm around his shoulders and watched on as genesis and zack carried on, and only when seeing sephiroth jump in did angeal answer cloud's question. 

“We came here for you cloud. I understand your need to get away from all that's happened and i also understand that you don't want to be so disconnected from us and shinra. So, we decided to have our mandatory vacation now rather than in three weeks time.”

Sighing heavily, cloud watched as sephiroth pulled zack backwards and subsequently, fall over as he couldn't find his centre of balance quick enough which caused genesis to laugh and sephiroth to be rather smug. 

“But then, wouldn't you be missing out on whatever it is that you normally do?”

Smiling at cloud's concern for them missing out on whatever, angeal squeezed his shoulder briefly before he spoke. 

“The only thing we would miss is seeing you cloud. Our timetables are so far apart from lining up that it's a rarity to spend it all together. This is a blessing and good fortune to be able to do this. Cloud? Don't feel like this was something we had to do. It's something we wanted to do, actually we've been planning on this for a while and now we've got the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

 

Smiling softly, cloud looked up just in time for genesis to charge after zack after he threw some seaweed that was on the pavement at the man. 

Honestly, it was like being with a couple of children. And looking at angeal's face and him groaning at their behaviour, sephiroth's included? Cloud could see that angeal agreed with him. 

 

“Alright!! So, what are we gonna do first?”

“How about we settle in then we go to the beach.”

“Better yet, how about we just put our suitcases down, then go grab some food. There are some food huts along the beach.”

“Let's just get settled first pup and then we can decide on what to do after.”

And with the medium that is known as angeal finalising their plans, the four made themselves at home at the villa owned by an old friend of theirs for the next three weeks, well hopefully for that duration at least. 

 

While everyone else went to their rooms, with a pair sharing and a single one on its own, cloud was standing by the porch and watched the waves crash against the walls a few feet away. 

 

His synapses were no longer pulling him back to his entrapment in hojo's lab and he was getting a little bit better at other sounds but some were overwhelming him to the point that he shut down and the others had to reassure him. 

For instance, angeal was making a cup of tea and the kettle went off and immediately as it did, cloud dropped the glass of water he was holding and clutched the sides of his head and fell to the ground. Which caused genesis to hold him through it and for angeal to apologise. Hannah ran some tests and it turns out that the pure, unrefined mako that hojo dosed him with had enhanced his senses but not in the way that it enhanced SOLDIERS. Hojo had gave him mako for the sole purpose of causing cloud the most amount of pain possible. 

 

In time hannah had ensured the other four, cloud's nervous system will recover and although the mako may not fade away, the effects won't be permanent. If anything, it'll be an upset to cloud and the way he does things. 

Although relieved that the effects aren't staying, it did little to comfort cloud and the other four, especially when even the tiniest things can set cloud off. 

Little things had to be changed despite cloud's objections of them changing things just to make him happy, from cloud's point of view, all of the upheaval they're doing isn't worth it in the long haul. To which the other's had gently scolded him for thinking that none of them would do anything they could for cloud. 

 

Even zack dialed it down a little, although still boisterous and fun, when it came to cloud? He was a completely different person. Relaxed, calmer, softer and he slowed his pace a little. 

 

Cloud was leaning against the window as the next wave crashed and immediately cloud flinched at the boom it made as the two masses collided with the other. Zack had saw what had happened and could see cloud's hands, one gripping the curtains in a deathlock whilst it's partner was pulling at blond hair. 

Zack had learnt not to go running in like he used to when it concerns cloud, instead zack calmly walked over and entered cloud's field of vision slowly but on purpose so that he wouldn't do more damage than good to cloud. 

Once in position, zack smiled softly at cloud, gently pulled his hands away from the objects he was holding onto rather tightly and softly spoke. 

“Baby? You ok? It's a nice view, isn't it?”

Turning around to view the sea before refocusing on cloud, once he got the young man's attention, zack gently wiped away cloud's tears and pulled him slowly into his arms and murmured against his forehead. 

“It seems as if the whole world had dropped on you, doesn't it? But you know? This won't last forever. Yes, it hurts you. Yes, everything seems so displaced. But, i and the others won't abandon you to your suffering, nor do we expect you to just 'deal with it’. We can pick up on whatever is getting to you. But, don't do this alone, if there is something that is bothering you? Tell us about it, don't think that you're ruining our vacation because you're not. Cloud? Can you promise me that you'll let us know if something is wrong?”

 

Sobbing softly, cloud merely nodded in confirmation before zack smiled softly and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead over and over again before the other three approached and signalled that they're ready to hit the beach. 

 

It seemed as if the waves crashing against the breakers were a lot louder up closer than back at the villa. 

Currently, zack had all but ran straight into the sea and was taking to it, well, like a fish to water. Genesis had calmly sat on porch, feet in the warm sand and his favourite book open at his latest chapter. 

Sephiroth and angeal meanwhile decided to be less boisterous about it and headed to the sea with sephiroth's long hair looking surprisingly good in a high ponytail. 

Cloud meanwhile, was sitting on the wall that separated the beach from the pavement and was just watching everything unfold around him. 

He definitely felt a lot calmer than before but the wind blowing past him and ruffling his already untainable hair wasn't helping his now heightened senses. He was getting a headache, a headache caused by the wind and that pissed cloud right off. 

He's had enough. Enough of the constant light footing everyone is doing around him, fed up with unable to just sit back and relax for once. Cloud was angry with everything and everyone, let alone himself for not fighting against hojo hard enough to escape. 

Cloud couldn't help but resent the other four for just being able to shrug off anything that came their way as if it were a mosquito bite.

He was so engrossed in his anger that he didn't notice a stranger approached with a gun until it was too late. 

 

'BANG’.

 

TBC


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You all look up and expect to see something different.   
> However, the only thing that changes is you...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. 
> 
> Yes, I'm still alive and this will go on!!!  
> No preamble here, this next chapter follows directly from the one previous.   
> Enjoy and I'll try and update a lot quicker than this...
> 
> ;D

Of voices that aren't known part 21

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

'Bang’.

They all heard the shot the minute it went off. 

Someone had the audacity to fire upon a member of the shinra army and none of the other four are going to take it lying down. Without even getting their sandals on, the four made themselves known to the would be assassin. 

However, what they saw made them stand as still as statues. 

Cloud had the man in a headlock, gun to his temple whilst his would-be killer had a knife to his throat and blood running down his thigh from the gunshot heard earlier. 

Immediately, sephiroth approached and knocked stood behind the assailant before he turned his attention back to cloud. 

“Cloud. Put the gun down please and come to me. You're bleeding heavily. We'll take care of him, he has nowhere to go.”

However, both cloud and the man had other ideas and both attempted to kill the other. But cloud got there first, and with a well placed bullet to the forehead, he was dead before he hit the ground. 

Immediately the other's ran to cloud but only stopping when sephiroth signalled them to. 

Blinking away the haze that was covering his eyes, cloud looked ill and he immediately crashed to the ground, not however, without sephiroth catching him before he fell. 

 

“Cloud!! Seph?!?! Is he alright?”

Ignoring zack for now, sephiroth carefully picked cloud up bridal style and headed straight back to the beach, there wasn't any point in going back to the villa and the MP's were already on their way and there is CCTV footage from the incident. If they have a problem, they'll speak to them about it. As far as sephiroth was concerned, it was self defence, now they needed to find out what happened to cloud and to heal his bullet wound.

 

They headed to their private Hut on the beach and immediately sephiroth began to sterilise a kitchen knife whilst angeal placed cloud's head onto his lap and gauged his temperature. 

 

“Geal. How's cloud doing?”

“He's running a fever. Not to mention the bullet hole that's torn through his artery, don't worry zack, he'll be alright. More worryingly is what had happened. Sephiroth?”

“I agree however, it will do us little good to conjecture about it. We'll ask cloud. Zack? We're about to cut cloud open, you might want to leave.” 

And that's exactly what zack did, sure he's been on missions with cloud and has seen the man kill in order to protect not only himself but the rest of the unit as well. However, zack draws the line of watching cloud's body being ripped open and so he left without looking back. 

 

It only took twenty minutes but it took a whole two hours before cloud awoke again. 

 

“Sweetheart. Cloud?”

Groaning at the mention of his name and petname, cloud turned his head towards the sound and immediately winced at the sun hitting his face. Luckily, angeal had noticed and closed the door softly as to not disturb cloud's senses even more. 

But the worst was let to come as suddenly cloud picked up the same knife that sephiroth had used to remove the bullet and held it against his neck, immediately drawing blood. 

“Cloud!!?! What are you doing?!?! You're alright now. It's alright…”

 

“NO it's not!!!! I can't take it anymore!! Everything is getting to me and i can't, i DON'T want to do this anymore!! End me!! Or i'll do so myself!!”

They knew. They knew that cloud wasn't doing as well as they all hoped for. But this? This wasn't even included in the worse case scenario for cloud. 

 

“Sweetheart. We love you, all of you and that includes thistle new change. We want you to be happy, and if you truly can't deal with this? Then me and you will go somewhere. Just the two of us, a place where i know that i can end your pain.”

 

“Genesis?!!?!”

Hearing angeal scold genesis was too much for cloud, and as soon as his drastic measures had begun - they ended to. Cloud was blinking rapidly before he swayed where he sat and then fell forward, not however before genesis got to him first. Genesis caught mid fall and cradled cloud's head to his chest and only when he had him safely in his arms, did genesis speak with anger clear in his tone. 

 

“You saw it too, right? Cloud had the same eyes from the pictures tseng and mack sent us.”

Frowning immediately, angeal nodded then placed a blanket over cloud's unconscious form before uttering a word that meant that the nightmare has just begun anew. 

 

“Jenova.”

 

TBC


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darkness wraps an arm around your neck and softly says. 
> 
> 'don't despair, for all things come to an end.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. 
> 
> No, this isn't a ghost and i'm still very much alive. I'm sorry!!!! I didn't mean to dissappear like that, my hours at work have been screwed around with some so i haven't had much time to write, never mind upload anything new. I'm being a rebel here, i'm at work but it's slow so i am updating this!!!  
> I think that this may have more chapters - again but i'll cross that bridge when i get to it. 
> 
> Thanks again for the support this has gained, hopefully there are still some people out there who want to see how this ends, regardless, this will end either way. 
> 
> Thanks again and i will try and update more frequently than before.
> 
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 22

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.  
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

“It's jenova mack, she ain't letting cloud go. And sephiroth isn't faring any better either, it's like a resonance between the pair.”

 

'That correlates with what had happened when we found her. She emitted a sonic scream that shattered all the glass tubes of mako around us. Angeal? It begs the question, what would happen if we were to destroy this creature? Will the general and my boy cloud fall with her?’

 

“I don't know mack. But presently jenova is doing more harm than good. And that isn't in regards to SOLDIER in a whole. We'll see you in two days time.”

'See you then commander.’

Sighing heavily, angeal placed his phone down on the counter and slightly turned around to sephiroth's direction. 

 

The man currently was laying on the couch with a still unconscious cloud in his arms. Cloud's head was under sephiroth's chin whilst his legs were draped across the general's straight ones. The good thing that came out of this was that cloud's fever had broke but sephiroth was now suffering from a headache, but he assured the other three that he had no urge to kill cloud, in fact, sephiroth felt a whole lot more calmer with cloud with him. Needless to say, the men were taking that win and any more that came their way. 

 

“Geal. What did old man mack say? Did they destroy that monster?”

Smiling softly at zack, angeal gave him a firm but nevertheless gentle grip to his shoulder before responding. 

“Unfortunately no, it appears that when cloud had collapsed, jenova reacted to it in kind. She nearly destroyed the reactor, the most damage she caused was the destruction of the mako tubes inside. The real problem is how we deal with her, if we destroy her, what's going to happen to cloud and sephiroth. Plus, we still have no idea if whatever hojo had done to cloud is permanent. We need to examine hojo's notes first. If we can contain jenova and her influence, logic should dictate that she can't manipulate sephiroth or cloud. For now, we have a vacation to enjoy, or at least try to. Come zack, it's almost time for dinner and i can use the help.”

Nodding in understanding although still upset about it, zack nevertheless put a smile on his face which angeal wrapped an arm around his shoulders for and guided themselves to the kitchen. 

 

Genesis meanwhile had just returned from talking to the MP's regarding the incident that had happened nearly four hours ago and was now staring at sephiroth who merely raised one of his eyebrows in questioning which genesis smirked at and spoke. 

 

“This seems to be the closest thing to relaxation i've seen you on this little holiday of ours. It's actually a rather nice thing to see my dear sir.”

Smiling at his remarks, sephiroth carefully inclined his head downwards to get a look at cloud. His breathing was a little bit heavier but sephiroth felt no danger in it by the way cloud's diaphragm was moving in sync. 

“Really. I suppose these past few weeks have been an eye opener to me. Whatever happens from here on out, know that i never wanted any of this to fall on your shoulders.”

 

Frowning, genesis was about to ask what was wrong when angeal stepped in to explain. 

 

“Jenova had an episode in the reactor, the exact same time as cloud's collapse and fever. Me and mack surmised that when cloud's would-be assassin made his move, jenova reacted and cloud did as what he was told by her. What's more is that, if we were to destroy her, it may kill sephiroth and cloud here. Her hold though, seems more on cloud than in sephiroth's mind.”

 

A dark understanding had fallen on their faces but surprisingly it was cloud who softly spoke up. 

 

“She, jenova wants her child back. And i'm supposed to help her to do so with my death.”

Sephiroth calmly sat up and brought cloud up with him before he spoke. 

“Is that why i always felt the pull of ending you?”

Smiling sadly in confirmation, cloud eased himself up and turned towards the worried faces of the other two SOLDIERS then spoke. 

“I know what major garren had told you, i heard jenova scream right before i passed out. Jenova wouldn't hurt seph, she loves him, or at the very least claims to. I think i know how to deal with jenova. Although, i sincerely doubt that you would all agree to it.”

 

“NO!!” Surprising everyone, zack shouted out his objection to cloud's idea without it being voiced out yet. 

“Zack? What is it?” Was angeal's question. 

“Zack… Don't..” Was cloud's pained plea to be quiet. 

Zack was torn, he and cloud were friends long before they became lovers and that never changed even when that line was crossed. But still, zack wasn't going to allow cloud to do what he had planned for a while now. It was sheer luck that he had stumbled upon what cloud's idea was and cloud begged zack not to say anything about this, not until he knew that this was the only choice he had left. 

But now….. 

Looking up at cloud with pain and anger in his eyes, zack was about to speak up when cloud did it for him. 

 

“I'm going to be the one to kill jenova, regardless of what may happen to me. That's what my plan was. Actually, i’ve been thinking about it since we were told about jenova.”

It went without saying that the others weren't happy about it, and before any of them could voices their complaints, a haze immediately hit them all and genesis knew what was going on. Cloud had mack's knock out materia, the exact same one he used on sephiroth that day. 

“Cloud. Don't do this.”

That was all genesis could say before he fell to the ground, not however without cloud catching him and laying his head gently on a pillow he picked up. 

The last thing genesis saw was a pained look on cloud's face and the tears that fell with it. 

That and a whispered plea. 

'Sorry. Forgive me.’

Then everything went black…. 

 

TBC


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreams and reality all fade away when you open your eyes to the truth..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, i'm back!!!  
> No preamble here, here's another chapter for you all.   
> Comments are welcome of any kind!!  
> Enjoy!! Also apologies for the length too. 
> 
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 23 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

Cloud couldn't or rather, didn't, want to stop the tears that fell down his face. It pained him deeply to do something this drastic, but considering the vast ability jenova had to reach out far to them? Cloud saw the opportunity to end it with his own hands and decided to do so. 

Hitting the local shinra army base, cloud was able to borrow a motorcycle and headed to the drop-off point that major garren and the turks will be. He didn't know how but kunsel had managed to get the location of the three and forwarded the information onto cloud with a warning not to do anything reckless but respecting his decision all the same. And with shaky goodbyes on both end, cloud felt that kunsel deserved a call than a message, cloud pulled his goggles on, wiped away what tears still remained and swallowed back his sobs. With a heavy heart, solid mind and a strong determination, cloud kicked the bike stand off, and floored it. 

 

Groaning.   
That was all that could be heard twenty minutes after cloud's materia attack on them. Genesis, who was a master of materia and it's uses and effects was the first to awake and immediately he grabbed hold of his phone and dialed up cloud. After three rings and a voice mailbox telling the caller to leave a message, genesis silently cursed and set about to wake up the other three. 

 

“Puppy. Puppy, wake up!!!!”  
Punctuating his command with gentle but purposeful smacks to his face, genesis was about to hit zack just a little bit harder when he finally came round. 

“Where's the fire gen?”

Ignoring zack for now, genesis turned his attention back to angeal and sephiroth when he saw sephiroth waking up and he immediately frowned. 

“Genesis. Tell me that you have cloud back here.”

“No, i just woke up myself.”

Not liking this one bit, sephiroth calmly stood up and went to check on angeal when realisation dawned on zack. 

“Damn it!! What did cloud do to us?!?!”

“He used the same materia that mack used on sephiroth that time. It may have tired him out a bit, but not enough to slow him down considerably. We need to find out where he's going.”

Nodding in agreement, zack turned around to see sephiroth helping up a still slack looking angeal and placed him down on the couch. Once he knew that angeal was coherent enough, genesis broke the news to the man. 

“Cloud used mack's materia on us. My guess is that he plans to go back to midgar and finish jenova off himself, regardless of the consequences that may have on his life.”

Rubbing away the rest of the spell, angeal grunted in understanding before he spoke. 

“Pup? Contact kunsel. If cloud wanted to know about the drop point of mack's arrival without alerting anyone else, he would go to him. Sephiroth? What are you doing?”

Sure enough, sephiroth was sitting crossed legged on the floor and began to they assume, meditating.   
Seeing the looks on the other three faces, sephiroth explained his reasons for doing this. 

“Ever since that time i tried to kill cloud on the very first day, i always had a, i suppose you could say, a sense of cloud. Maybe, i can use that to find him and bring him back.”

“Yeah, or it could alert jenova and cause you to go postal on us and for cloud to lose consciousness again.”

Sephiroth decided to ignore genesis's snide remarks and carried on with his mediating. He above all of them knew how cloud felt, knew exactly that he felt terrified about jenova and his own effect he has on sephiroth himself. But that was all the more reason to bring him back, to let cloud know that no matter what happens next, he'll always be kept safe, kept on being loved and cared for. That a god knows how old specimen like jenova is, could ever deter the other's away from him. Sephiroth needed cloud to know that and so much more. 

He just hoped that he gets cloud back before everything falls apart on them all. 

'Cloud. What a surprise! A pleasant one but a surprise all the same. What's going on kid?’

“I need to meet up with you sir. I have a way to deal with jenova.”

'Cloud. I don't like where this is heading kid. I've always have and always will support you and the decisions that you make so i've got to ask, do the other's know?’

Cloud knew that he couldn't lie to the man, knew how much he trusted mack and cared for him. But, he also knew that mack would understand his reasoning behind this. 

 

“No sir but i imagine that it won't take long for them to realise it. Sir? They want to protect me and i get it, i do. But, it's their protection that is making me do this because they fail to realise that i would do the same for them. So please? Let me do this.”

Sighing heavily down the phone, mack relented not however, without speaking his mind on the matter. 

'Alright kid. I'll send you the coordinates of the drop-off point i’ll meet you there. But kid? I think that you should speak to the others about this.’

“I know and i will afterwards. See you in a few.”

And with that, cloud pocketed his phone and sped off the main roads and headed on the back alleyways. It may add minutes more to the journey, but it'll keep sightings of him down to a minimal. 

 

“Seph's Been sitting there for a while now. Do you think that he can get a location on cloud? We're also wasting time sitting here too.”

 

Angeal knew that zack wasn't doing well with waiting, he was definitely an action kind of person that left the patience to the others. 

“True but running around aimlessly without a pinpoint on where to start is even more of a waste of our time. Have faith zack, it'll be alright.”

 

Nodding subtlety in understanding zack carried on watching when genesis's phone interrupted the din. 

 

“Hello?”

'Commander rhapsodos sir.’

“Major. How are you? It's been awhile since we last spoke. Is everything alright?”

Sighing heavily down the phone, mack confessed what was going on over at his end. 

'Firstly, know that i hate myself for betraying cloud in this way. However, i believe that cloud won't tell you himself so it falls on me to do this. Cloud is heading to the factory district, that's where we are scheduled to drop jenova off.’

 

Immediately hearing that, genesis non too gently kicked sephiroth in the shin, gathered angeal and zack over and placed his phone on loudspeaker for the others to hear the conversation too. 

“How do you know mack?”

'He called me about twenty minutes ago. Don't get angry with me, you know how i feel about cloud, but i also know how much you all care for him. Whatever his plan is, it may cost him his life and i don't want him to die. Worst than that? He doesn't deserve to die alone. I'll send you the coordinates and meet you there, i will try and talk cloud down but you and i both know how stubborn my boy is.’

“Indeed we do. Thank-you major, we'll see you soon.”

Genesis hung the phone up and upon seeing the hard, determined looks on the others faces? He immediately nodded in confirmation. 

 

They were going after cloud. 

No doubt whatsoever. 

They just hoped that mack would've talked him down by the time they arrived in approximately two hours time. 

 

TBC


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was always in my plan...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!  
> We're nearing the end!!!!!  
> I've decided that i won't need to add any more chapters to this but, i will be coming back with a brand new story that i have mentioned to one of this stories reviewers. It's going to be interesting, but that is for another day.   
> The last chapter will be up tomorrow sometime.   
> Thanks again for your comments and time at seeing this through.   
> Enjoy and this chapter follows directly from the one previous!!  
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 24 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them. All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

No sooner had mack hung up on genesis, a motorcycle approached and the tell tale blond spikes alerted mack to cloud's arrival. Dismounting the bike, cloud took off his goggles and sadly smiled at his major. 

 

“Hi sir.”

Mack couldn't help it, as soon as cloud was close enough, he pulled him into a warm hug which caused cloud to cry anew for what he's about to do. 

“Shh. Shh cloud, it'll be alright kid. I've got you.”

Fortunately for the pair, both reno and tseng were already back at shinra HQ, having already fulfilled their respective mission parameters. That just left mack here with a few local MPs. 

Gently pulling back, mack cupped cloud's face, wiped away his tears and softly spoke to him. 

“Are you sure that you want to do this? As you know, i will give you all the support you need. But, i can't with a good conscious allow you to walk to your death. Cloud? Are you absolutely sure that this is the only option left?”

Nodding subtlety in confirmation, cloud swallowed back the remaining sobs before he spoke. 

“Yeah, i don't fear my death all that much truthfully. I, i just know that this is killing sephiroth and with little power that angeal, genesis and zack have over the situation? I can end this, i don't want to die, i don't, i love them so much and you also not to mention my mum and hannah. But, i love you all enough to do this and that is all the strength and conviction to follow this through. I don't want to die alone though.”

Immediately hearing that, mack immediately pulled cloud back into his arms and murmured against his temple. 

“I'm not going to allow that cloud. I can see it, as plain as day your resolve in this, so, i'll go with you. No matter how much i want to move you away from here, i'll go with you.”

Swallowing hard, cloud thanked mack not just for this, but for all that he's done for him. Both parting, mack and cloud smiled sadly to the other and headed inside. 

With a silent pray from mack to the others. 

'Hurry. Please.’

 

“What's taken the base so long to acquire us a truck?!?!?! We're not asking for the world here!!!”

“Easy pup, we'll get there, hopefully not too late.”

Genesis and sephiroth were presently trying to procure the very truck that zack has been whinging about for the last twenty minutes. And honestly? Angeal understood the need to get the vehicle and go as soon as. He, like genesis and sephiroth may not have known cloud as long as zack but they all greatly loved and cared for him just as much. 

Angeal also understood zack's need to just run there and get cloud back, zack has always been looking out for cloud, even when he became a commander under one of the best SOLDIERS there. He even threatened mack that if anything were to happen to cloud, he'll as he had put it, 'ram angeal's buster sword so far up his ass, he won't be able to sit for years’.  
Needless to say, mack found it amusing and dragged zack gently into the training hall where cloud had just finished an exercise of which he stood against thirty of his unit disguised as mercenaries and had just defeated the last one. 

Zack never doubted that cloud would succeed, but he playfully reminded mack that his threat still stood, to which mack merely laughed at but understood his reasoning and promised that he himself would look out for cloud. From that day on, zack although still threatening every time cloud was away, knew that cloud would be taken care off. 

So to see zack itching to reach cloud as soon as he could, to let the young man know that he'll always be there for him, it pained angeal. 

Finally, sephiroth calmly signalled them over and soon they were on their way. 

 

Cloud could hear jenova screaming for sephiroth to come and save her but nothing else. Mack could see the pain in cloud's face, in the way that he clenched his jaws, as if to drive the noise away. Placing his hand through cloud's hair, cloud looked up at him with tears in his eyes and spoke up through the screams only he could hear. 

“I know that you probably already called sephiroth and the others, haven't you? Don't worry about it, i'm glad you did so, please don't think that i'm angry with you. I never could be.”

Smiling softly in gratitude, mack tried to ease cloud's pain by massaging his scalp before they carried on going in deeper into jenova's domain. 

This was a gambit and a big one to boot, they just hoped it payed off, otherwise, they won't be coming out of here the same way they came in. 

 

“According to these coordinates, they had placed jenova into the furthest part of the district to account for any attempts to reclaim her by third parties. It shouldn't be too hard to get there, the closer we are? The closer i can hear her and feel cloud's presence.”

Nodding in understanding, angeal turned his attention back to the road and stepped on the has a little bit harder. Each of the four SOLDIERS were in their own head space, each preparing themselves for the worse but altogether hoping for the best. 

 

“How much further is it ‘geal?”

“ETA fifteen minutes at best. I'm doing my best here pup.”

“I know, sorry. Thanks.”

Glancing through the rear mirror, angeal's eyes met zack's and he smiled reassuringly before he carried on driving. 

Genesis, who had his rapier resting on his thighs, was muttering under his breath a little prayer to his goddess to spare cloud anymore pain and for them to get there before it's too late to do anything. 

Sephiroth had so far yet to say anything more since his theory of finding cloud when they get there. He knew that cloud meant well, that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for their sakes, but hoped that it wouldn't progress this far, the gods and goddess weren't listening then. Now, it was a battle of wills to get to cloud before jenova's influence could do anymore damage. 

 

Cloud was struggling.   
Jenova was screaming, loud and hard. Threatening cloud with the worse possible deaths there were and promising that sephiroth would be his reaper. Mack couldn't really do anything more than guide him closer on cloud's insistence to do so. Hitting the main room that held the alien, cloud was pushed to his knees by her and as mack was about to help him, he was flung into the opposite wall, knocking him out cold. 

 

'Nibel child. I don't intend to allow this to happen. You. Will. Burn.’

And all that cloud could do was grip his head and scream. His screams were ripping his throat red raw, cloud could clearly feel the lining of his throat coming away and soon he began coughing up blood and something else. 

Something green. Mako. 

 

at the same moment that cloud was being torn apart from the inside out, sephiroth had grimaced and spoke softly through his now laboured breathing. 

“Angeal? We're close. Hurry, cloud's life is fading away. I can feel what jenova is doing to him, she wants me to feel this. Please, hurry.”

Angeal didn't need to be told twice, giving his metaphorical middle finger to the speed limits, angeal gave the other's a warning to hold on and he all but mashed the pedal to the ground of the truck. 

 

Cloud felt his insides trying to climb out of his throat and it hurt so, so much.   
Everything felt as if they, or in a different way of describing this, cloud felt as if he was being burnt alive and no sooner had he thought that, jenova had drawn up the illusion of flames around him, kissing his skin and engulfing his entire being. 

And all cloud could do was double over again and scream even more as jenova made good on her threat. 

Cloud will suffer before he dies.

 

Sephiroth didn't even wait for the vehicle to fully stop. No sooner had angeal announced their arrival at the destination, sephiroth jumped out and ran straight in with the other's following suit. 

He didn't know what to expect when he entered, but what he did see was his worse case scenario in his own mind. 

 

Cloud was laying dead still, eyes wide open, looking at him with pain and suffering etched in them, the tears that fell and blending with his hair and sweat being the evidence of his torment and torture. There was a puddle of blood and mako by his side and cloud was covered in sweat. Whatever he had endured had lasted a considerable amount of time and caused cloud pain right to the very end of his life. 

 

'My son. Come to me, the nibel child is dead now. It's alright now, he can't harm or corrupt you any more.’

Immediately, jenova's pull had hooked into sephiroth's head and before he could even lift one foot up, angeal's sword had been tossed like a javelin into jenova and her container - dissecting her through and through. 

Blinking away the haze, sephiroth regained his senses somewhat and all but ran straight to cloud's corpse. 

They couldn't hear his heartbeat anymore and even with them carrying a phoenix down with them might not work. Sephiroth tried anyway and as soon as the feather entered his chest but produced no results, sephiroth bowed his head and allowed his hair to curtain both their faces. He knew, cloud was beyond the point of being brought back again. 

Genesis had seen what had happened, not hearing cloud's heartbeat either brought genesis to his knees and tears silently fell down his face before he heard a groan coming from mack and immediately genesis sprung back to his shaky legs and went to check on cloud's C.O. Because, he'll be damned if he allowed his lover's surrogate father and his comrade to die here. 

Angeal cautiously approached sephiroth as he brought cloud's still warm body into his arms and began to rock him back and forth, all the while pleading for cloud to forgive him for not getting here sooner, for not sparing him the pain that he had suffered all alone through. To be there please in the next world to forgive him for all he failed to do here. 

Angeal knelt down beside him and tenderly closed cloud's eyes, that look will haunt them both, it wouldn't do them anymore good if genesis and zack were to see this. He would grieve for cloud for days to come, months, years even, but right now? He needed to be the anchor the other three will desperately need. Angeal pushed aside his own guilt and lack of power in the situation therein and remained the pillar the others needed until he could mourn for cloud himself later. 

Zack had just about arrived and when he did, he ran straight to the pair and when he saw the lack of cloud's diaphragm moving in sync with the lungs that weren't filling with oxygen or moving at all?

He collapsed and screamed in blue murder. 

His screams blocking out the first signs of cloud's heart beating again. 

 

None of them heard the sound of hope starting again. 

 

TBC


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It feels like it was all just a dream...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!!!  
> Here's the end!!!!  
> I've had a blast writing this and i hope you all had fun reading this too!!  
> I have a new idea already lined up, and i will be joining up with a writer that i admire here on AO3.   
> It won't be til a few weeks yet but it's going to happen!! And i don't think you will be disappointed at all!!  
> I've been thesilentone, this has been of voices that aren't known. 
> 
> Thanks again for all the comments, kudos and the time you all gave this. 
> 
> See you soon!!!
> 
> :D

Of voices that aren't known part 25 

Full disclaimer applies. I don't own final fantasy vii, it's world or its characters, nor do I intend to profit from them.   
All rights belong to Square Enix.   
(So, please don't sue me.)

 

Epilogue

 

“Puppy, stop staring at the door. He'll still be here when you finish your paperwork.”

“I know, i know.”

Smirking, genesis gave zack a gentle bonk on the head with his book before he resumed eating his toast. 

It was hard to believe that what happened in the factory district was nearly a month ago. 

Sephiroth had finally felt like he was able to get up and bring cloud's body home with them when he and angeal heard the dull thumping of his heartbeat going again.   
Immediately, sephiroth placed his body down on the floor, began given him resuscitation and waited until cloud regurgitated the blood he didn't throw up. 

Once cloud got most of his bearings back, he turned pained eyes to sephiroth and angeal, which as a response, sephiroth pulled cloud into his arms again whilst angeal held his hand and massaged his fingers gently. When the realisation dawned on them fully, sephiroth carefully brought out his healing materia and slowly healed cloud's injuries - regardless of the how he obtained them, or the nature of them itself. 

Genesis meanwhile, had seen all that unfolded and was practically beaming his joy that cloud was still with them. They were going to break the habit of cloud dying and the resurrections that soon followed as soon as they leave this place. 

Mack had suffered a concussion as well as a couple broken ribs from crashing into the forklift truck's prongs. If it weren't for the mako in his body? He may be dead now. 

Zack was beside himself with relief and anger for cloud. Relief that cloud was no longer dead - again. That he still had his best friend and lover. And anger for thinking that he had to do this all alone and not asking for their help. 

He knew that cloud would apologise over and over again for what he had put them through, but that can wait. For now, mack needs medical care and cloud needs to fully recover from not just this incident but the previous one's too. 

 

And that's what led to this scene now. 

Cloud was sleeping almost all the time now but they were reassured by hannah that the expulsion of the mako in his body had merely took its toll and sleep was his body's way of dealing with it.

Sephiroth's headaches and jenova's influence over him had also faded away. He no longer felt anything like that since angeal had killed jenova that day, and his mako level had also stabilised too. 

Hojo was another story altogether. He, like they were told, was a valuable asset not just to shinra but to the SOLDIER project as a whole. The real problem is that hojo knows too much and they want to keep what he knows close to their chest. But, he was no longer able to experiment ruthlessly like before, also sephiroth would have a guard with him at all times when he had to go to the labs, that was the only compromise they could give. It wasn't ideal or great, but it was the best solution to a bad situation. 

And none of them were going to look this gift horse in the mouth. 

 

Sephiroth and angeal were currently watching over cloud as he slept away.

He had suffered greatly at jenova's will, and they weren't just talking about the physical injuries he sustained. He had frequent nightmares to the point that they had no choice but to use sleep materia on the boy. It forced the sleep on cloud and while he didn't have much nightmares doing this, there was a drawback of cloud becoming too accustomed to the spell and so they dialed it back early night until he was able to sleep unaided. Of course, when that happens, cloud's nightmares came back in force but they managed to help cloud through them. 

 

Placing his fingers through his blond hair, sephiroth calmly massaged his scalp before he spoke softly. 

“Cloud is truly a wonderful person who i have the privilege of knowing. He's been through so much for my sake and was prepared to sacrifice everything that he is for us all. Angeal? How are we ever suppose to repay all that he's done?”

Smiling softly at sephiroth's facial expressions at the moment, angeal turned his attention back to cloud who had slightly shifted a bit closer to sephiroth who in turn, smiled and dragged his fingers through his hair to his face and repeated the process. 

“I don't know sephiroth. However, we'll have plenty of time to do so. What happened needs to be put behind us all, especially for you and cloud. The best we can do is to replace all the pain he had suffered with all the love we can smother him in. Isn't that a good place to begin sephiroth?”

Nodding in agreement, sephiroth gently bent down and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead before murmuring his promise to him that he'll always be there for him, sephiroth gestured to the door and both he and angeal allowed cloud to rest a little bit more. 

 

“How's my sweetheart doing?”

“Asleep still. He'll be alright once he recovers.”

Nodding in agreement, genesis put his book down on the table before he grabbed his coat that was draped over his chair and put it on. 

 

“Do i really need to get back to work? I mean it's not as if i'm needed.”

Smiling softly in understanding, angeal wrapped an arm around zack's shoulders and gently explained the situation. 

“Cloud won't be awake for a few more days yet. Major garren's unit needs a commanding officer since both its leader and it's S.I.C are both incapacitated and you are more than qualified to help them out. And Mrs garren is coming over to supervise cloud. Zack, all you would be doing is driving yourself crazy waiting for cloud to awake. Keeping busy is the best thing you can do.”

Sighing heavily but in understanding, zack went to grab his gear before he went to say goodbye to cloud for the day. 

“You think that zack will be alright?”

“Unfortunately, we won't know until the time comes. The best we can do is keep an eye on him and wait this out.”

Nodding in agreement to his general's words, angeal went to grab his own equipment and both he and genesis headed to the front door and proceeded to put their boots on. 

 

Entering his room, zack frowned slightly at the sight before him before he made his way over. 

Cloud was softly breathing in his sleep, hannah had hooked up an I.V drip to keep cloud hydrated and well nourished as he slept. There would be a long road ahead for cloud to fully heal. His mind is resting now but his body, in particular his muscles will have to rebuild their strength after sleeping for so long. 

 

Bending down slightly, zack gently brushed away his hair from his face before he softly spoke. 

“Hey baby. I'm going to work now, i have to keep an eye on your men as someone not so far away decided to sleep on the job.”

He was making a light hearted joke but it didn't feel that way, zack gently leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead before murmuring against the skin there. 

“Wake up soon cloud. I miss you.”

And with that, zack steeled himself up and headed to duty, knowing that the others would understand his worries but would help in anyway they can. 

 

Two months later. 

 

“Zack!!!! Quit it!!!!! It tickles!!!!”

“I can't help it!! You look so cute when you're all flushed red and with tears down your face!!!”

“Zack!!!”

 

It took two more weeks since they returned to duty for cloud to awake. It was hard for him in the first few moments, so hard in fact that even with hannah there cloud was still tearing himself apart and so they had no choice but to put him back to sleep. 

This happened on and off for next three days until cloud was able to get a grip on the situation and allow himself to relax. 

What followed was cloud apologising over and over again until genesis gently reprimanded him and told him that as long as he doesn't do anything like that again, all is forgiven. 

 

Which led to this scene now. 

Currently, zack was showing cloud no mercy and was tickling the man beneath his legs until he became a giggling mess.   
Angeal, genesis and sephiroth merely smirked in amusement at the scene before them while hannah was laughing just as hard as cloud and mack had given up trying to get zack to stop tickling his subordinate. 

Mack had returned to duty not to long after cloud had finally got a hold of himself, he wasn't sent to far from the base but his mission's did take him days, weeks even to complete. Needless to say, shinra were keeping all of them busy. 

 

Fortunately, angeal decided to give cloud some help in his predicament. 

“Alright puppy. Let cloud go. anymore and he'll pass out from the lack of oxygen getting to his lungs.”

Immediately hearing the words 'lack of oxygen’ and 'no breathing’, zack all but pulled cloud into his arms and rocked him back and forth, all the while murmuring into his ear. 

“I'm sorry for taking this so far cloud. Are you alright?”

Ignoring zack's wondering fingers that are examining his body and checking for any bumps and scrapes he had probably attained whilst wriggling on the carpeted floor, cloud turned his attention back to sephiroth and spoke up. 

 

“So, how's things going with the science department?”

Smiling softly, sephiroth calmly stood up and detangled the pair and brought cloud up with himself and sat down on the couch with cloud in his arms. 

Ignoring the indignant look that zack's shooting him, sephiroth pushed cloud's hair away and answered his question. 

 

“For all tense of purposes, hojo is behaving himself. Although he doesn't like the turks hanging around, he's cooperating enough. Cloud? He will NEVER touch you again. Do you believe me?”

Nodding in confirmation that he does, cloud tucked his head beneath sephiroth's chin which in turn caused sephiroth to smile gently and lean back into the couch, bringing cloud with him and carding his fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp too. 

 

“So much for him claiming to be untouchable. That guy's a jerk. Pure and simple.”

Nodding in agreement to zack's words, genesis scooted over to sephiroth and ran a soothing hand down cloud's back to ease any tension that remains. 

 

“Well, i better get a move on. My unit has been picked to guard the perimeter. Cloud? I'll see you tomorrow?”

Removing himself from his hiding place, cloud looked up, nodded in agreement before he got up and hugged his surrogate father. 

“Thank-you sir. For everything. I'm glad you are still alive.”

 

Smiling softly, mack pulled back, cupped cloud's face and placed a lingering kiss to his temple before he spoke softly into his ear. 

“Always cloud. I will always be there for you kid.”

And he knew that to be true. Nodding in understanding, cloud allowed mack to pull back before the man spoke to his general. 

“Sir.”

“Major, miss hannah.”

Hannah got up and pulled cloud into a warm hug before she left with her husband. 

 

“So 'geal, what are we having for dinner tonight?”

Smiling exasperation, angeal got up and grabbed zack gently to his feet before he answered his question. 

 

“Roast beef with all the trimmings. And you get to help.”

Groaning in mock annoyance, zack dragged himself to the kitchen, however, not before he pecked cloud's cheek briefly which caused genesis to smile before he spoke softly to cloud who was back in sephiroth's arms again. 

 

“Sweetheart? Do you want to rest some more before dinner is ready?”

Smiling softly at genesis's question, cloud merely shook his head in a negative answer to which genesis gave him a nod of confirmation and approached the young man and softly placed a kiss to his cheek. 

 

Sighing softly, sephiroth calmly stood in front of cloud before he spoke softly. 

“I'm sorry for all that i have put you through. Just know that i will use the remaining years of my life making it up to you.”

Swallowing hard to stop the sobs he knew were coming, cloud raised his arms up and immediately sephiroth picked him up and allowed cloud to wrap his arms around his neck before cloud spoke. 

“I Know seph. Then i will do the same.”

Smiling in understanding, sephiroth calmly pulled cloud's legs up and carried him to the kitchen where the others are waiting for them. 

 

It's been a struggle but they knew one thing for certain. 

 

Everything was going to be alright. 

 

The End.


End file.
